Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 514: Featuring Zeev Buium & Clint Malarchuk

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

On Episode 514 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by one of the NHL’s future stars, Zeev Buium, to talk about his time so far at Denver University, growing up playing in California, and the support his family has given him over the years. Later in the show, Clint Malarchuk joins to discuss his struggles through his time in the NHL and the unbelievable journey he’s been on helping others battle mental health and addiction issue. An important episode you won’t want to miss. 00:00:00 - START 00:00:41 - Chiclets Updates 00:16:42 - Stamkos 00:18:50 - Zeev Buium 01:08:15 - Clint Malarchuk 02:35:00 - Alex Meruelo 02:37:34 - Copa America Support the Show: PINK WHITNEY: Take Your Shot with Pink Whitney PETER MILLAR: Head on over to www.petermillar.com/CHICLETS and check out the Bingham Performance Short as well as the rest of Peter Millar’s luxury-level Crown Crafted lineup. LABATT BLUE: Find Labatt Blue Light at labattusa.com/finder G/FORE: Check out the G/18 Golf Shoe and plenty of others now at G/FORE and don't forget https://gfore.com/chiclets for 10% off your first order. THE RANCH TEAMMATES FOR LIFE: Their mission is to offer a healthy, therapeutic, and supportive environment for those affected by mental illness and brain disorders. To provide a future of optimism, freedom from barriers, and the opportunity to live full, independent lives, with new beginnings. Make A Difference and Donate Today: https://theranchteammatesforlife.org/donate/ Call 988 for mental health emergencies.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Well, she's your love. They say you're drunk at speech. She's just so good at that. I like to poke the bear. I like to stir the pot. But then you come on in and take it up a notch You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot Hello everybody!

Witty here, I'm back with Biz for episode 514 of Spittin' Chicklets on a beautiful Monday in July as we sit here and record. Biz, how goes it, buddy? I mean, we got some questions, or I got some questions for you after some amazing social media posts. You just carving it up. You just ripping up that lake. What is that?

What is that, windsurfing? No, that is wake surfing. I said wakeboarding when we hopped on here and i didn't even know what what what activity i was doing uh fish had to correct me it's wake surfing because your boots you're not strapped in but that was my first experience so i think the last time i checked in i was just about to leave calgary after stampede so i came right back down to jackson hole which is one of my favorite places on earth. It's magical. The video you sent of the,

and I think it was on Twitter, of the mountains and the scenery. Yes, those are the Tetons, the Grand Tetons. Les Tetons, les Grand Tetons. The Tetons get me going. I think the French discovered them and they called them the Big Tits because it's two big mountains

that have been carved out over time by glaciers. And it's actually the most photographed mountain range in the world uh according to my sources that that that's going to be fact-checked that might be one of the best biz facts i've ever heard i if i'm not mistaken the grand tetons are the most photographed mountain range in the world one of the most prestigious mountain ranges in the world one of the most prestigious mountain ranges there are so that was actually jackson lake and it's um it's inside the park so i when when i knew that they had a lake i didn't realize that you could take your own personal boat on and i thought it was protected to the point where maybe if you wanted to go do like a kayak or something non-motorized but no there's a like a certain dock like kind of right at the the tip of it closer to town where it's more for like the

tourists where you can rent boats and then there was a drop in about halfway up where it's like mostly just like locals and people who have um like there's no docks there they just have like a buoy so you gotta like swim back to shore so there's no harbor with like boats at like a dock and like a wharf. Okay, so we already got a fact check from Grinnell here. He says the most photographed are the mountain range in Switzerland. I am competing against this. We're not taking his word as gospel. That is Google.

That's probably Wikipedia or some bullshit. Oh, yeah. What is Google. That's probably Wikipedia or some bullshit. Oh, yeah. What is Google now? So anyway, we go out there, and this is after July 4th weekend. So I want to say it was like the 8th or 9th. Wait, there was one other sailboat on the water, and then just us. There was nobody on the lake, bud. Because I think most of the tourists hang out at the tourist spot where you join in the lake.

But we had this big juicy part that was like the like where it was the deepest where you have that in the background. You have the Grand Tetons as your wake surfing and it's like the water was glass. So I was learning all these new terms. They call it glass when there's absolutely no waves because there's a lot of a lot of wind that happens here and it comes off these mountain ranges so sometimes you can get like four foot waves on this lake where it's not the easiest to wake wake surf but it was glass that day there wasn't even a wrinkle in the water and it was beautiful so is this like clear water can you see to the bottom or what's the what's the vibe of the water on this magical lake? No, probably about like three feet deep, and then all of a sudden it gets pretty dark.

But it was a fun experience. Well, maybe not so fun to begin with. So have you ever wake surfed before? No, but I had no idea your feet weren't locked in. So now to me, it's way more impressive you did that. Those dummies at Pardon My Take tried doing it at lake tahoe and they couldn't get up okay so so that that was my problem initially was getting up so there was uh there was five of us in the boat so everybody gets their turn to go right so they get up they start

riding it like all of them that are experienced that have done it before so they're just kind of zipping back and forth and as each person's going i'm not only watching but they're just kind of zipping back and forth. And as each person's going, I'm not only watching, but they're kind of like verbally teaching me what I need to do. And so the explanation is, is you put your heels basically on the end of the board and make sure they're, they're wide enough. So you have a good base and the minute the boat starts going, the wake will essentially push the board into you. So you just got to push with your heels and then kind of that momentum will just bring you up well i just thought you kind of had to stay stagnant it will it would do it for

you so basically like you would just go and you'd come up but me being you know very persistent and and wanting to do it i kept holding on and i couldn't come up so i was just eating the water in my snout for you know 20 seconds and then i'd let go and they'd be all times before you got up how many tries bro probably about six or seven then i'm like all right i'm done and then i got in the boat then everybody else went and did their round and then i'm like okay i watched them again yeah yeah i listened more for lessons got back in the water seven eight more times just cheating just eating this fucking ocean water or lake water lake water right up my snout i felt

like the biggest unathletic loser uh and then kate she owned the boat she was just carving it she had this little mini board like it was basically the size of like a um like what do you call this a skateboard skateboard yeah it was like a skateboard so she had the nice one i had the easy one so finally i was i was done and i was tired from all the partying at stampede and this was just on tuesday when i got back so i was going to shut it down they were all like no you're trying one more time and i think just from the pure pure pure frustration of not being able to get it i kind of just made like an athletic jolt as soon as the boat started and boom i got up for the first time it fell right away but in the

midst of my fourth cycle about on the third or fourth try i finally got it and i was so relieved not only just finally getting to feel like an athlete again but you don't want to go to the lake the whole day to wake surf for you know five six hours and you don't even end up getting on the board so uh unbelievable experience uh cool video that they ended up capturing of it with the tetons in the back and just uh an incredible lake day and that was just kind of the start of the trip back to jackson with i had a full week here felt like i was here a month uh just i got to go golfing a few times. I went to this Three Creek place. The golf out there is amazing, I've been told. It's unreal, and the ball just flies too.

So it goes an extra, it feels like 20, 30 yards off the tee just because of the altitude here. So I had the ability with, we had two foursomes at this place called Three Creek, and it's just one of these communities where it's kind of like a gauzer, where everything is, what was the name that they do at gauzer the whole the whole company the discovery properties yeah so they have a shooting star here they have three creek and then they have that um uh snake river sporting club that brooks orpik's a member at so not only did i get to go to three Creek with a couple young hockey players,

one kid was a lacrosse player. He's actually going to Princeton. I wrote down the names here to give him a little shout out. It was Carter and Johnson, or Bryce and Carter Johnson. And Carter's the one, he's going to Princeton. He's playing net for lacrosse. And then the other kid, Hayes Milham, he's the best high school golfer to ever come out of Jackson he's not going to play

at college um for the like division one team at University of Michigan but he may might play for the club team and just kind of enjoy it and then who knows maybe eventually ends up getting on the team so maybe he walks on at one point maybe he tries walking on the team at one point that's what I told him I said go have fun at your first year of university. Like, obviously, I would assume that at University of Michigan, they're taking trips with these guys, and they're even during, like, the winter months. So he's going to take some time off.

But I told him, hey, take your first year, enjoy it. Play a little club at the end of the first school year, and you never know. Maybe you end up getting on the team and end up getting a full ride out of it. Who knows then uh as i said i went to that snake river to golf with brooks orpik and that was a blast great seeing him how's he doing he's doing awesome dude he's working with the caps he loves them he says it's a super chill organization everyone works really well together uh ownership is incredible and uh hey i mean i was talking

to them they made a lot of fun moves the caps we didn't give them enough we've been down on the caps all year as like the miracle playoff team they did a pretty big restructuring of their team going into next season i'm a little excited actually maybe we didn't give them enough love because they made a bunch of moves so i'm happy orps there because even playing with him i'm, this is a guy who can be a part of like building a championship team when he's done playing, whether his role is front office or working with prospects. It's like he's the perfect guy for what he's doing. how talented he is and how good of a communicator and wanting to have him around because he's a champion and a good dude i think that they've been pressing him to work a little bit more and more he'd actually just gotten back from chicago i don't know if they went there for like a little mini tournament or whatever they're doing with all these new draft picks so i think he has a um

he's a lot of he's very hands-on with all the young guys coming up i even asked him about leonard and i and I was like, hey, you think they're going to pressure him into leaving school? And he's like, nah, I think he's going to keep his foot down and be persistent about going back to school for that extra year. So it was great. I don't know if you've ever heard of this sporting club. It's not just golf, so it's one of those same type of communities,

but they have a gun range there. You can keep your horses there. So if you have kids and they ride horses boom they'll put the saddles on you go down boom they're ready to get taught and ride wherever um they have their it's right on the snake river so they have all the fly fishing gear that was the one thing i didn't get to do this trip was was fly fish and i'd never tried it so that's on the that's on the bucket list for the next time i'm back but wait i i've fallen in love with jackson i'm gonna build a barn on my property here and i'm gonna spend a lot more time here moving forward i just every time i come i stay a little bit longer and the people in the community and and everybody are just awesome so i actually spent

the night last night at my uh my neighbor's place up where my lot is and uh he's got a pretty cool shack up here. He built it with his own hands. 10,000 square foot barn. Just him? Well, he outsourced some of the stuff, but he had a hand in all of it. It's crazy how much money he saved doing it on his own too. I can't even put together the Lego set we got.

Why? And this guy's building 10,000 square foot. But Biz, I have a couple questions. But first, I do have to mention that this show and this episode is brought to you

by New Amsterdam's own Pink Whitney. It's been flowing. Went down to a bar in Nantucket called The Slip or Slip. Great little spot

right on the harbor. Boom. Front and center of Monster Bottle of Pink Whitney with just a tiny bit left. Guy said people are coming in there

ripping the shots. I had to do one. I appreciate all the support from the people in Nantucket at the Slip drinking it, people on the lakes in Jackson drinking it, people down on the beach in Florida drinking it, although Panthers fans really can't stand our podcast, but we

love your Panthers, your Stanley Cup champions, but the big bottle is what I want to talk about. It's always what I bring up, the 1.75 liter, the Big Daddy. That is what that is what pink whitney's all about having enough for everyone and it's summertime it's on the golf course it's on the beach i've mentioned that before but shout out new hampshire never shout out pink whitney and to wrap up your little jackson trip two things i guess one would be picturing those people on the

back of the boat as you failed and failed and failed like somebody had to say quietly this dude did not play in the nhl like it looks like ra trying to get up on one of these things but i i i think that they they were impressed because i wouldn't let go of the rope my forearms i i honestly thought i felt like i hit the rice bucket for 14 hours straight that's how sore my forearms were because i kept hanging on because i i thought that it would eventually pull me up. And for 20 straight seconds, every time I'd just be getting that lake water up my snout. So that last question is the picture you posted, amazing video of the Tetons, amazing video of you surfing. The other picture, why are you rubbing that woman's feet?

I'm so confused by that. I'm like, who is this woman and he's rubbing her feet that was kate she owned the boat i decided to give her a little foot rub as as repayment for me mucking all the water for repayment for me stealing half of the lake up my nose she's like this guy can't get up on the surfboard and he's the worst foot massage person of all time what a what an amazing afternoon i'm like yeah i i practice time massage i was wondering if i could dabble with a little bit of reflexology here ma'am get off my boat she's like you know you're like can you walk

on my back and then slap me so it sounds like i'm banging but i'm not because we don't do that at time massage but uh i i did a. But I did a little outdoor activity. I went with Ryder. We got the – did I say – I don't know if I told you this. We got the paddleboard, and it was awesome. I actually like paddleboard, and I've done it before going around the harbor. Great little workout for the core. He's standing up, so we had a blast.

And then Wyatt wanted to do it, so we went back with Ryder and Wyatt, but it was so windy that I was like, boys, it's too it was blowing 30 to 20 20 with gust to 30 and I'm like we'll just get this little kayak a little three like two-seater but Wyatt's out of my lap so buddy we get in this thing and boom the wind takes me right out I'm like oh and I'm like this is like I can't really move this thing like I'm struggling I had to I had to to basically get it over to the rocks, like the big jetty, and then I somehow got it back to the beach, and I had to walk it in, dude. I had to walk this thing in. And the guys at the thing that rented it, they're like, buddy,

how are you guys doing this into the wind? They're like, we told you it would be kind of hard, but we thought you'd be able to do it. So pathetic look for me. You know, your two kids are looking for inspiration from their dad and i'm pushing this kayak and dragging it along the sand so that was kind of a depressing like so it seems as if though the chicklets boys should should uh stick away from the water sports we should maybe not have to stick away from everything i I mean, you're talking building houses, water sports. I can't do anything. So, yeah, it's been a tough day water sport wise.

I'm more kind of sit on the beach with some pink Whitney and then watch the kids build sandcastles and then cry when the water comes in and wrecks it and then punch each other. And, you know, that whole scene at the beach. But I mean, hockey wise, in terms of what we have for you this episode, we did an amazing interview with Clint Malarchuk. That'll be a part of this show. He is a guy, if you don't know who he is, he actually had his jugular sliced. He's a goalie. And it was, I want to say, mid-'80s biz.

We got to get the exact year. But we sat down with him in Vegas, and his life story and what this guy's gone through, what he's doing now, how he's helping others. It is an incredible, incredible interview. There are definitely some pretty dark, sad moments of the interview. But I would say at the end, you're going to leave very kind of appreciative of what this guy's gone through and what he's doing with his life now. So I hope you guys all enjoy that.

R.A.'s voice is a disgrace in it. Let's just get that out of the way now so maybe a little frustrating but i think biz and i did most of the commenting and right after this 1989 i'm sorry g just let us know 1989 is when this happened so an incredible interview coming up and then right after this we're going to interview zeev booyah the superstar from denver who uh was just drafted first round by bill Guerin in the Minnesota Wilds. We haven't even done that yet, but what a story this kid has. So we got both of those interviews coming up. Other than that, I read the article today in the Players Tribune that Stephen Stamkos wrote

saying goodbye to Tampa. I can't recommend it enough. It's free. You can go online. It's kind of all over the internet right now. It is amazing. He's talking about when he got there and the billboards that said, seen Stamkos question mark and all the excitement and the buildup and what he learned from the leaders. And then I didn't even understand that when he came back and played that one game three

against Dallas in the COVID bubble cup year, their first Stanley Cup, he scored that beautiful goal. I think on his first shift, maybe his first or second shift. I think he only played a couple shifts in that game. He played one shift after that, but what happened was he was dealing with a brutal abdominal injury

that he knew he'd had to get surgery for. They're rehabbing it. He can't do much. And he goes out. He's like, I thought I'd be able to go. And right as he stepped around Lindell, incredible goal, he just felt the whole thing tear off. He felt it, just whatever, a pop, a burn. He's like, he just felt the whole thing tear off. He felt it just whatever a pop, a burn. He's like, I just felt it go. I knew I was done. And I just ripped this thing on net. And as I look up, like, boom, it's going shelf. And the excitement just, I was overtaken the way

he writes it or whoever's I did a player should be in writer. I didn't write it. I don't think stamina wrote it either, but the way they word it with the ghostwriter, it's awesome. And he's just like the excitement. I was so overwhelmed. And then I realized I went back to the bench and I knew that was it. But he talks about that wasn't his idea of winning the cup. Like it was incredible. And when he raised it, it didn't matter.

But the next year against Montreal in a full barn in Tampa, like just to be able to get both of those. And he goes in a lot about his injuries and what he went through with all the stuff. It's an incredible article. He says it was heartbreaking what happened in leaving Tampa, but he's so excited for Nashville. I just recommend anyone for reading it. I saw a lot of comments. It's a little teary on a Monday morning right now

as I read this article. So really cool story if you want to check that one out. Did Celebrini already turn pro when we did last week's episode, G? I think that was since then, he did yes okay so celebrini's gone that really stinks but i can't wait to see what he does in the nhl um i didn't know if you had anything else biz uh nhl wise no i mean it just goes back to the i mean you mentioned zeeb bouillon coming on i mean i wasn't necessarily that aware of his game before you kept pumping his tires I mean you and G have covered a lot of the college hockey this year going back

to obviously him making his mark in his first year as a freshman with Denver and then also going to the world juniors this guy scored in I think he had the game-winning goal in the gold medal game so what a year this kid ended up having and we talked about how we'd spoken to a lot of people saying, this is one of the sneakiest, deepest drafts the NHL has ever had to the point where people think that this Zed Bouillon is a generational defenseman and he ends up going 12th overall. I mean, Billy Guerin and the Minnesota Wild, I want to say they had the 13th pick and then moved up to 12

just to solidify that they ended up getting them. you almost wonder like with with billy g being in minnesota for the frozen four and getting to watch him firsthand how much that had to do with him making that pick because in those two games with he was everything as you guys described and more i mean his offensive ability is one thing but i've read articles uh in preparation to him. The work that he's put on on the defensive side of this game. So he reached 50 points this year as a freshman defenseman. I think it's only four times in the history of the NCAA that it's even been done. 39 assists, 11 goals. So this kid came in with the mentality yeah i got that offensive puck moving ability but i'm going to turn into a shutdown defenseman as well and when we went to that tourney in those two games he was closing on guys and taking away time and space so good one-on-one incredible gap so it just speaks volumes to this kid's uh work ethic and also the story in which how his family came over here as immigrants.

And all three of his brothers ended up getting into hockey. His older brother, I believe, was drafted second round by the Detroit Red Wings a few years back. And he also played at Denver as well. So really excited to get him on and for you guys to hear that. And there's a new wave. And these players are getting bigger, better, stronger, and faster at a younger age. And I'm just so excited for the next five to ten years in the NHL because I think it's going to be on a heater. Only other hockey news as far as NHL is concerned, Ryan Suter, who got bought out by Dallas, ends up signing a little 750 deal, 750 or 800 it was, with the St. Louis Blues.

Now, I think he's a 5 or 6 guy now at best. Obviously, he's slowed down, but Jesus Christ would. If he ends up playing a full season, he's going to hit over 1,500 games. I don't know how many players in the history of the NHL played 1,500 games, but it's a short list. I would say no more than 30 players. So talk about the longevity and I guess reaching the expectations of ever since he was coming up as an American defenseman

and getting drafted in the first round by Nashville and then having the career that he ended up having. So a good depth signing and really interested to see what St. Louis does this year coming up. I still don't think they're a playoff team, but we'll see if some of these younger players can come into their own and they can fill out the rest of that lineup.

Well, in terms of St. Louis Blues news, Merles, he did a gin tasting, a big gin tasting thing with Alexander Steen over in Sweden. So, I mean, imagine Steen, he's trying to become a GM, which he'll take over in a couple years and figure out a way to make the Blues champions again.

And his toughest task is babysitting Merles during a gin-tasting event over in Sweden. So, I wonder how that goes. And Fish just said only 21 players have played in over 1,500 games. Of those, 15 have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and four more are not yet eligible for induction. So I don't know. I don't really think of Ryan Suter as a Hall of Famer, but I do remember the 2003 World Juniors when it was 80.

Like, I'm an 83. It was 83s and 84s, but Suter was an 85, and he was probably the best defenseman on the team. I'm like, this guy's different. So drafted very high, and just the career he's had has been amazing. So congrats to him on staying in the NHL one more year. I think now we kick it over to Zeev Bouyem, no? Fucking right. So let's do it. All right. What up, guys? Before we continue, it's time to talk Peter Millar. It's midsummer. It's golf season. And I need to tell you about my new favorite shorts from Peter Millar, the Bingham Performance Short.

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as well as the rest of Peter Millard's luxury-level crown-crafted lineup. We are now pleased to be joined by one of the best prospects in the game of hockey, a world junior gold medalist, an NCAA champion, and a really, really special player out of California and Denver. 12th overall pick in this year's NHL draft to the Minnesota Wilds, Ziv Bouyem. Thank you so much for joining the show, buddy you doing i'm great yeah thanks for having me it's a pretty good introduction uh where are you where are you at now i'm just at home right now yeah in cali yeah i was uh well minnesota's dev camp goes like it's not right after draft you have like a week at home and then so i went from minnesota right to here that's kind of nice after the vegas trip not having to go play

yeah it's super nice yeah i got to go play. Yeah, it's super nice. I got to enjoy the fourth year. I actually met your whole family when I was in Vegas. They were walking around the casino and I must have bumped into him six times. I don't think I saw you once. I just saw the whole rat pack of all 80 of them who

came up to the draft. Yeah, they were all talking. I think we were on the phone actually. Me and you, Biz. I don't know if you remember that. He doesn't remember anything. Yeah, okay. I don't know if you were following social media. It was a long month for the Chicklets guys,

so there's a little bit lost in memory here. Wait a minute. I'm having a flashback, Biz. Did I meet one of your buddies and leave you a voicemail? Yeah, there's a video. I got toicemail yeah you left you there's a video you got a video i gotta send you it after but there's like a video i it's actually pretty funny it's a video of like you and him zeeb i'm with your boy steal the draft right now oh you're ruse he's a pigeon but i love your game i love your game and it looks like you don't even like believe

him like he's saying he's like my best buddy and then you like called him a pigeon and walked away and then oh that's that sounds like wit i'm like i think a guy came up to me late now he's like i'm zee booyah's friend i'm like all right fuck yeah let's make him a video and then uh and then he wanted a photo with you so he tried to take like a selfie and then he saw and then keith yandle apparently walked over it's the funniest photo it's like he's like it looks like he's taking a photo of you guys but he's just taking a photo of like half his face oh geez but um i mean quite the whirlwind the first time i got to see you play live we went to the frozen four an incredible showing so congratulations on a national championship before that uh it was the world

juniors so i mean probably a pretty overwhelming season for you then to have it capped off with So congratulations on a national championship. Before that, it was the World Juniors. So, I mean, probably a pretty overwhelming season for you then to have it capped off with Minnesota jumping up in the draft at 12 to select you and, as you said, probably the greatest moment of your life. Yeah, it's insane. I think a lot of people kind of like forget, but like even, you know, the end of my U18 year, N we won the year 18 world championship so it's like the whole like 14 15 month spam of us just um you know just with with that and world juniors a national championship it's like probably couldn't have written up any better but um yeah it's it's been a world where it's still really hard to like kind

of just wrap your head around everything and try to understand like um you know kind of how special all those moments are so um you know you try to stay in the moment and um you know do what you need to do to to move on to um you know next year and what you're gonna do this summer but um you know just trying to enjoy it as much as i can so i was i was talking to a lot of people before and i haven't seen a ton of college hockey this season but watched you play um in world juniors as well and I just couldn't get over like that you weren't more talked about as a top five pick and I was like I don't I don't really get it and then the draft's going on and I'm just wondering like are you sitting there did you have any idea I mean obviously Minnesota hopped up but were there any other spots like oh this might be me like what were the nerves like that night

and for first biz and I have been drafted that experience was sick like that that whole like vibe and and situation at the sphere made it even more special but i'm just wondering as you're sitting there with your family like what were you thinking going into the night and how it all played out yeah i mean i think for me i think the biggest thing is like no one really knew where i'd kind of end up like i didn't know you know it was kind of just like a big toss but i think um you know the players anywhere from two through twelve everyone knew mac was going one but like after that no one really knew who was gonna go um you know you had like a feeling of you where you might go but talking to guys like after it was almost like it sounded just like a toss-up from two to like you know two to fifteen or whatever so i mean for

me it was just like i didn't have like an expectation i didn't want to kind of go in and be like oh this is where i want to go and if i don't go here i'm going to be upset like yeah you know i just got drafted in the first round if you told me that that was going to happen you know when i first started playing hockey it'd be like you know we didn't know what the nhl was so for me it was just trying to enjoy it like as much as i can and uh you know with my family have fun with it so i never um you know had a moment where i was upset or down or anything i mean i was for me it's um you know i landed where i think i needed to go and uh you know it's my job

now to do the best i can with it so to have my parents there and obviously my brothers and all my family members maybe like 85 people there so what it was super special not just me but all of them there couldn't they couldn't even get fans in the building yet as all his family and friends there um i i read in one of the articles that you when when minnesota moved up to 12 that you you had a an inkling that it was going to be you being selected now was that based off of maybe prior communication with Billy Guerin and, and sitting down with him and them and like a prior meeting? Cause sometimes I know that guys do go to meetings for teams before the

draft. I always joke around about the Dion for enough situation where he was getting grilled by the San Jose sharks. Did you have any interesting meetings and did Minnesota really pop out? And that's why you thought you were going to go there i mean my my draft process honestly was like it went really smooth i didn't have any extra meetings i went to the combine obviously just did the normal meetings i had uh i had like 20 meetings or something and like no dinners i didn't have dinners at the draft like didn't have anything extra like for me i felt good with with everything like every team i talked

to you know it kind of came out of the room feeling really good and then throughout the year like didn't talk to a certain team like a crazy amount like i talked to minnesota you know once in the early in the year i think once midway through and then obviously at the end of the combine but i mean i i felt really good with them they almost kind of gave me like a vibe where it was like they didn't know if i was going to be there. So, um, they didn't like, I don't know, like really how to explain it, but, um, I guess the biggest thing was like, like, I didn't have any, um, you know, crazy talks with anybody or anything. And I think for me, like when I got to that spot and I saw them trade up, I was like, I just had a feeling like it could be me in a way where it was like, you know, who else like, you know, could it be?

And then at the same time, like I felt really good, you know, with all the talks I had with them. So, yeah, I just had a good feeling it could be me. I ended up saying it right away. And we went into this as we introed you about just the fact of of how you played in the Frozen Four and it being in Minnesota and Garen's there as a BC alum and what you did. And that made kind of sense to me. He just saw this in person. And I want to go into that Frozen Four because it was incredible hockey. And I think your goaltender probably put on, I think I said on Chicklets, one of the greatest maybe two-week, three-week performances I've ever seen a goalie go on. And an amazing interview after.

And I just want to go through him coming back from injury and what he started doing. How amazing was that to be on a team where a goalie is just carrying you guys through to a national title? I think it was huge. I mean, obviously, like you said, he was injured kind of early on in the year, missed a good chunk of the year, and we struggled a lot during that time.

We were, I don't know, fourth and fifth in the conference, ninth in the pairwise or something like that, like something that we didn't want to be, and we wanted to be higher up. Obviously, the standard for us wasn't good enough where we kind of knew we were struggling, and he kind of came back, and he just had this mentality that he was just going to take it over. So, um,

you know, going on the frozen four, we were confident, um, in our team, like confident in him, confident in each other. But,

um, I don't think any of us really expected him to kind of, to do what he did. So, um, he was, I mean, he was incredibly so,

so dialed. Like he's one of the most, uh, you know, dialed guys. I know he's unbelievable. He's one of the most dialed guys I know. He's unbelievable in the locker room. He's a great human as well. He works his tail off. So everyone knew he was going to be prepared and ready for it.

But I think after the first game, after that UMass game, double overtime, he started crapping in that. I don't know if anybody knows that, but he was crapping in that. And we were going on a penalty kill. He started crapping in that i don't know if anybody knows that he was crapping in that and we were going on we were on a penalty kill he's crapping in that i'm like sitting there like oh my god like there's no way we're about to lose you know davis so um i mean he stuck it out he played through it and i think it just kind of grew his confidence even more to go through the other games so i think without, I think the outcomes could have been different. Some of the saves he made. There was a play where I was, I think it was the Cornell game.

I was looking up at the clock with like two seconds left in the game. Puck goes right by him. He backed the war guy one times, and he makes a save. I'm like, I love this guy. So. Getting your draft stock bumped up. Shai's yelling at me. Everything's, who are you doing?

Like, why are you looking at the clock? And I'm like, I thought the game was over. That must have been awesome getting to play with your brother too. And I just want to go over this stat quickly. I think I messed it up on the pod. You're actually only the third rookie D-man to ever do it, hit the 50-point mark, and you're the first DU freshman to reach that mark in 40 years.

So just an incredible first year obviously having your brother there was probably nice to for that transition and get there and to feel comfortable right away but one other thing that David Carl mentioned was not only your offensive ability but when you got there how bad you wanted to continue to grow your defensive game like your gaps uh you know stick on puck how well you're closing and and taking away lanes off guys so just talk about maybe your mindset going into your freshman year and how you wanted to attack it and obviously exceeding probably every single expectation that they had of you for me the biggest thing was like i've always had like an offensive uh you know mind and like

wanted to play the game that way and um you know i feel like at the ntdp i got some opportunity but wasn't uh you know almost didn't get the best out of me in a way and going to like denver i knew that uh you know they had a lot of belief and confidence in me and i had a lot of belief in myself that i can you know play this way and create those kinds of plays so that was was a big thing for me and i I think, you know, the other thing was, I don't just want to be a guy that's, you know, playing power play and he can only be one dimensional and especially as a defenseman.

So, you know, you can't win that way with those kind of D. Like if I'm a guy that's going out there playing 25, 30 minutes a night and I can't defend, how are we supposed to win a hockey game? So I think I took that really seriously. And, you know, throughout the year, year just kind of grew more and more and more with the more responsibilities I had um on the ice so you know the offense kind of for me I feel like has always been there and this year was kind of just the breakout year to show that I can do it and uh defensively it was

just how do I stay consistent and how do I um you know, take my game to the next level. So obviously Coach Carl and the rest of the coaching staff and my teammates, so everybody was a huge help. Everybody was pulling the rope. So, you know, for me, like playing with Barron's, playing with my brother, like they're guys who are in their junior year, you know, about to sign a contract. So for me, it was how do I watch them and see what they do well and um you know take from them to to put into my game so uh they were huge helps this year and yeah it was a it was definitely a great year i looked at the like your stats throughout you know

your career so far and a lot of people don't realize how hard the first year is at the national team development program the under 17 year and i noticed like offensively as good as you are now, the stats weren't really like anything crazier to write home about. Was that more of you talking about how they didn't necessarily get the best of you early on? Or were you maybe not playing first power play and did anything change the summer going into the 18 year where all of a sudden, you know,

you're right 40, 50 points at 60 games and like under 18s, you're running the power play, you're winning the gold medal. Was there a lot of improvement that summer from 17 to 18 year? Definitely. I mean, I came into my 17s year, everyone just knew me as this California kid from Shattuck. No one really knew who I was or what I was really doing there.

So my 40 cap kind of made the team right out of 40 cap. I wasn't going in expecting to make the team or anything like that. In my head, I knew I could make it. I've always had a confidence belief that I can do it. I think the guys that I play with see me on a different level than the outside perspective of scouts and whatnot. I think people know me on a different level when you're actually playing with me and um you know so the guys from shattuck like you know weren't surprised when i made it but i think everybody else was was pretty shocked so i mean i came in i had a conversation with the coaching staff and everybody and they're like you know we don't know

where we see you in the lineup you could be a 50 a 60 we don't we don't know and uh you know for me i was like okay like you know you can see me this way but don't know. And, uh, you know, for me, I was like, okay, like, you know, you can see me this way, but I know I'm, I can be the, you know, the best on the team. So, um, for me, it was, you know, going to 17, it was hard. I had to learn a lot. It wasn't, uh, you know, doing well offensively, struggling defensively. It wasn't playing power play. I started playing power play, maybe, you know, end of the year, um, really late. So you had to earn it. It was, yeah, I'd earn it. I'd earn every moment. I think that was, was really good for me. It's not like, I don't think I've ever

been gifted anything, um, you know, years prior, but I think it was just another step of me, you know, needing to, to show and prove myself and not get anything easy. And that's, you know, kind of how it's always been, but, um, you know, it just made me stronger in a way. So going like that 18 year, I was like, you know, screw everybody. I'm not going to, you know, kind of how it's always been, but, um, you know, it just made me stronger in a way. So going like that 18 year, I was like, you know, screw everybody. I'm not going to, you know, take a backseat to especially kids my age. So, um, it was, how do I develop? How do I take my game to the next, to the next level? And, um, you know, be that number one power play guy. I mean, beginning of the year, my 18 year, I was switching off with two other guys in the power play. Like we'd even have a set defense, man. Like, you you know you look back now and you're kind of like how

you know how is that whatever but um you know i had to kind of establish myself and um you know it's gonna it's gonna be hard it's gonna be like that when you go to the nhl and that was kind of the big thing for me was how do i establish myself and show that I'm better? How has it been balancing all of it? Because like you just talked about this 14 month period, like over the last two years, have you been able to have much of a social life or has it just been the grind of, of, of being at the rink and putting in the time in order to put yourself in this situation? Like, what do you do to escape and, and, and, and get away from it all? Well, for me, it's, it's pretty easy.

I think, think uh you know no one knows what the hell hockey is here like uh you know i'll go hang out with my girlfriend and her friends and and just like my friends and uh you know everyone's like oh like you really got like got drafted right and i'm like yeah like oh congrats like you know they don't really they don't really care or know or anything and it's's nice, you know, you kind of just get to get away from it and, uh, you know, just be a kid. So when I'm home in the summertime, I'm training, I'm, I'm having fun with it, uh, you know, skating and whatnot, but, um, you know, go to the beach or whatever and, and take some, take some time off and, um, just kind of, just kind of relax. So, I mean, I'm not a guy that kind of, that sits there and

really thinks about everything too deeply. I everybody will will agree with me on that but yeah I think just trying to stay in the moment and enjoy it well one of my favorite parts about interviewing guys and a lot of the fans do that listen is is hearing the upbringing and how you became who you are as a person and a player and I think yours is probably one of the most excited I've been to hear about because everyone, you know, from Canada or Boston, Michigan, you know, they start playing hockey. Their dad played hockey.

But your parents, immigrants from Israel, they had no clue anything about hockey. Your older brother wanted to play. It led into two hours of driving back and forth each way. Like, take me into the beginning. And I guess it was probably a little easier for you seeing your older brothers do it. But how do your parents recall when your oldest brother wanted to play in the beginning of the madness of like hockey life it was uh it's insane i think

actually so obviously we're our cousin galad um who's at the draft you might have met him or not but um yeah so he he just played saying this arena uh you know ring finance down the road we'd have barbecues in the backyard on friday nights like there was no triple a wasn't a travel like club team or anything it was very much just to have fun and learn to love the game and you know us being um you know kids and not knowing anything about hockey or parents not knowing anything it was it was solely just to have fun with it so uh you know shy had i'd love to go watch and play and um you know a couple months later begged my parents on a play i think my mom's words

were like over my dead body she's like you're too clumsy it's too expensive we don't know what this sport is like just go play basketball go play football go do anything else and uh and shy was like a big kid like he was like six feet at like 12. Like, so, um, he was clumsy and break helmets or whatever. So they didn't want him to play.

And obviously eventually let him play. And, um, Ben, my oldest brother, um, eventually got into it and then being a little brother and tag along. So I would go to the rank,

I would roll around with roller blades. I wasn't on the ice for like the first couple of months. I would just kind of roll around in blades. And then, um, I think a couple of months later I loved it and just, uh, just trying to hop on the ice and fell in love with it. Was there a story that, uh, they, uh, your parents were unaware that you had to get your skate sharpened. So you guys hadn't sharpened your skates for like months and months and months.

But like when you guys first started out. Yeah. I don't, I don't even know. I don't even think they knew what like gear was or anything like i remember like we get on the ice and i think this is like when i was a little bit older like we'd be falling over like the first time i think they really knew what like a sharpening was was probably like at the kings when we moved to the junior gangs come on and like like i swear like we literally didn't like yeah i don't even know it was like it's

actually like our coaches used to tape our sticks like um brad ballon like he was like the quickest tape job ever like now looking at it was probably terrible but he just spin the tape like as fast as he could no tone nothing here take we used to use like these hundred flex combats of like this big maybe he doesn't know what the combat stick is but like just anything that we could we could have or use um we take to go play with so it was i mean it was different but um you know i'm so happy that that's kind of how we grew up where we weren't forced to go play or do anything it was all up to us we wanted to go um you know skate and whatever like our parents weren't going to be like you have practice for this and like if you want to go, you know, skate and whatever. Like our parents weren't going to be like, you have practice for this.

And like, if you want to go, you can go, but we're not going to force you to go. So it was all up to my brothers and I to kind of, you know, decide if this is what we want to do. And, you know, for them, it was just they were just there to support us. So your dad, I imagine you get a lot of, you know, your confidence and how hard you work from him. He comes over and I believe he started an HVAC company, knew no English when he moved to the United States. So like you've seen what he's been through and what he's done to become a success. And that's probably helped you with, with becoming the player you became now. A big time. Yeah. I mean, I think, um, the both of them work so hard. I mean, my mom,

when they first moved over, it was obviously working, making small money just to try to help them, um, you know, survive and to keep the mother feed. And, um, after my dad's business kind of took off a little bit, obviously they had the three of us and, um, you know, seeing him wake up every morning at six in the morning, come back late nights. Um, you know, when we moved from San Diego to Laguna, which was like the midway point between San Diego and LA, he would

drive an hour to work, my mom would drive an hour and a half to practice. We'd meet up 10pm at night, 11pm and do it all again the next day. It was long days, long nights. They just put in so much work and sacrifice for us.

Not knowing what the path was going to be, not knowing what the path was going to be, not knowing what the journey was going to be. It was just solely because they knew that we loved to play and that they were going to kind of do anything to let us play. So my mom's, everyone says my mom's a rock star, but we love to say our mom is a true rock star just because everything she's done. And I don't think my dad also gets enough credit

for all the work he's put in to provide for our family and um you know let us uh live out our dreams i think so many parents now get into it with the idea of like oh he could get a d1 scholarship he could get in the nhl like they were doing it because you loved it but when you had these rides which i think the article i read four days a week two hours there two hours home did you love hockey enough where you didn't even care like were you so young you're like i don't mind like not knowing how crazy it was to be in the car that long he was doing homework in the car for two hours yeah right he didn't do homework yeah he was right yeah yeah so yeah but uh like i mean yeah i didn't know like i didn't understand how crazy, um, you know, the drive was. I didn't understand that, you know, my mom is driving us two and a half hours in the middle of, you know, rush hour in LA to get us to practice. Like, I didn't get it. Like, I would just, like, we had this huge, you know, SUV and I'd put the seat down and do homework or i would take a nap you know just just kind of hang out watch some tv on my phone like literally just do anything it just

felt like it was normal like she'd have you know meals packed for us from home and uh our gear packed like she would do everything for us so it was like we never had to stress out about having our gear or doing this or doing that like everything was always packed ready to go like um so it was i mean the way she she did it and kind of handled us was uh this was super crazy so uh you know like i said like it was it was drives that just felt normal didn't feel like uh you know it was out of the ordinary and you know the older we got and then we started going you know went to shattuck and the rink is 30 seconds down the road and kids, you know, some guys are, are lazy to go down the road 30 seconds. We're like, Oh my God, 30 seconds. Like, this is, this is unbelievable. So, um, when we kind of got back from, from that and shine,

I probably, I think we drove from LAX to, to San Diego and we're like, Holy shit, think we drove from LAX to to San Diego and we're like holy shit how the hell did mom do this for this many years so um yeah I mean we can't thank her enough and uh we don't we definitely uh don't take it for granted we've had Wayne on a couple times and he obviously talked about the growth of hockey in southern United States uh obviously California with him going to the Kings how much of hockey around that area had an impact on you when you were younger? Because Anaheim won their cup with Corey Perry and Getzlob there early on. I mean, San Jose had a lot of years where they were in the mix. And then obviously the LA Kings with those two cups in three years.

You go on to the Junior Kings. So that development there, were you completely dialed in because of how hockey was growing in southern california yeah i mean i i didn't even know like hockey was like weird i guess in california i didn't know it was something that wasn't normal like for for us like it just kind of felt like um you know it's a sport where it's it's supposed to be here it's supposed to be in california it just felt that way for us, I think. That's kind of how every kid honestly felt.

Like you said, you had a lot of guys to look up to, a lot of teams, in a sense, where the Ducks were doing really good, the Kings were doing really good. So it's like hockey is good in California. And also

practicing at Tideo Sports Center is where, um, you know, the Kings also used to practice. So you would see them around the rink all the time and they would stop and have conversations with you. And it's like, uh, you know, just kind of gets you more excited and, uh, you know, you get a taste of what it's like. So I think, you know, for me, it was nothing, didn't feel weird, didn't feel like it wasn i think you know for me it was nothing didn't feel weird didn't feel like it wasn't you know a sport that was supposed to be here so it just all kind of felt like it was it was normal who were you uh looking up to dowdy yeah i love dowdy dowdy's i mean like when i was younger i was a little like grip ball like i would love like messing with guys and like because i

know like how he played he was just like chippy and aggressive but also like offensive and that's how i loved it like you could ask guys like stories about me like i would like like if someone cut me in line i'd like slash them in the back of the leg and like just be like a little rat so and i was small like it was a small little rat so yeah i read that um you went on your brother's du visit right so obviously you weren't eligible to sign or maybe you were but you were very young and you went through a big growth spurt you were 5-1 at one point when you went on that trip and your brother was like hey i'm gonna need a few weeks to decide and you were like the hell are you talking about that you better be coming here is the best university going yeah

it was sick i think it was i mean it was like exactly like shattuck um in a way it was just like a bigger shattuck and and I love Shattuck. So I was like, this is perfect. I don't know what you're doing or what you're thinking about. I'm not going to bash on him. I'm not bashing on Shattuck. You're going to watch this. But he didn't have many offers.

It's not like he had so many other places to go. I was like, dude, this place is sick. What are you doing? So for me, it was fun. so many other places to go i was like dude like this place is sick like you know like what are you doing so uh for me it was it was fun i mean like you said i went to that to visit with them i was not allowed to know like i was a late bloomer i was five two hundred you know 20 pounds or what not when i went to shattuck like it was you know 13 and really underdeveloped so uh you know that covid covid was kind of like what kind of changed me as a player where that six-month span

where we didn't see anybody, we didn't, you know, do anything. Like my brother and I, Shai, Ben, like we built like a gym in our garage at home. And for six months, just kind of isolated ourselves. And I grew maybe five or six inches, put on some weight. And that was kind of isolated ourselves and um i grew maybe five or six inches put on some weight and that was kind of the the year that set me up to to get invited to 40 camp so um i mean what were you doing the inversion table

is that what you were doing to get the inches that's what i was doing yeah i don't know i was i was sleeping a lot and was eating a lot um i don't even know i was i was probably doing anything i could but um yeah i was it was a good six months for me like i think that's like covert honestly helped me like i was like it's crazy to say but like covid was like, like probably the reason my career kind of took a different path. How did you guys find out about Shattuck, right? Like, were you kind of recruited there or your brother? Like, because it's, I mean, obviously it's a well-known kind of hockey institution, Crosby,

Taves, all these legends. But for you, when you heard about it, you're like, I'm moving to Minnesota. Were you excited or more like, what's going on? Yeah, I mean, it was a lot of things. I think so bad. My oldest brother was the one who actually got recruited to play at Shattuck. And he was really good. And Ben Hume Hafer was the head guy at Shattuck there.

And he recruited bad. And my mom and dad again were like we don't know about this like sending our kids away from home at you know like 15 like what that sounds crazy so um they were they were weren't sure about it and Shive is like the hockey nerd like kind of knew everything about um you know Shattuck he's like this is where we need to go like if we want to make it if if we want to do the next level, like this is the place to go. Like it's the best boarding school,

you know, for hockey in the world. Like we have to go here. And so my parents like, okay, like, and we're like, you know,

shy at this time wasn't even going there. So we're like, okay, like whatever. And, um, eventually like that same summer, Ben,

who married for Edley, call my mom, like, you know what? Bring shy to shine and come. So, um, shine up going with ben to shattuck ben left i think maybe you know two months in wasn't really for him it's kind of like we like to call like the guinea pig we're just you know kind of toss him in there let him show up the waters and we'll go out after it but um yeah i mean he wasn't brand, which is fine.

But, you know, Shai obviously stayed and loved it. And I ended up going, you know, when I was 13. So, it was, yeah. Was your mother an Olympian or like a swimmer? Yeah, people get this like wrong all the time. Like, they're like, oh, she's an Olympic battle. She just played professional. Yeah.

She just played professional. Where you used to do your homework where biz learns about the most photographed uh mountain range in the world oh fuck off it's it's switzerland i thought it was the grand tetons have you ever heard of the grand tetons oh for fuck's sake never mind You can keep going. What do they get wrong about your mom's sporting history? What other facts do we not have? She was a professional women's basketball player in Israel. Oh, okay.

Just on one of the teams, like top league. I mean, that's probably where you get a lot of your athleticism from, too. Did she always want you guys playing sports? Was that a key? And then when it came to it and you guys picked hockey, she was like, ah, I didn't mean that one. Yeah, basically. I mean, I don't think she really forced sports on us,

but we kind of just grew up playing them, got into them right away, and we loved it. So like I said, they never really forced us to do anything, but we loved it right away, just being outside, playing whatever it is basketball soccer you know football ping pong we would just do anything um together as brothers so anything we we could kind of pick up and do we would i think it's funny because you talk to most kids like i guess their dad or their mom might have played hockey and they talk to you

about the games and you hear about like the long ride homes if you played bad, but your dad must have been like, great game. You're like, I was minus four and got benched in the third, dad. I'm guessing he knew nothing about the sport and what you could do better, right? Actually, nothing. That's actually the best story ever. So Shai had a game at Shattuck his 16th year.

My dad doesn't watch much. He doesn't really care. He just wants us to have fun. He doesn't know if you score a goal or you don't score a goal. It was one of Shai's first games of the year. Shai's a lefty.

Shai, you don't have any last names or anything. When you're watching somebody, youag, you don't have any like last names or anything, but like, you know, when you're watching somebody, you should definitely know if it's your kid or not. So he throws on the game and he's like, oh my God, like Shag's playing so well. Like texting my mom, like he's playing unbelievable. My mom's at the game and she texts my dad. Like he played like shit. Like he played so bad.

And my, and my mom's like, or my dad's like, my dad's like what are you what are you talking about he scored two goals and my mom's like what game like are you watching like what do you mean you score and so he texted he texts like you text shy's like hey great game and shy texted back like i don't think mom thinks that like i don't think i played very well and then he's like what do you mean you scored two goals he's like dad what game are you watching so he's watching the younger team oh for christ he's not even watching that he wasn't even on the ice he watched he watched he watched the wrong game and he saw a kid wear number eight who was also a righty and shies lefty oh god that's my son and watched the entire game it's all that was me my whole nhl career not knowing what hand my my line made shot that's why i couldn't ever put

it on their stick jesus that's a tough look i was putting air conditioners into a fucking mansion leave me alone i'm trying to play pay for your skate sharpenings you asshole shut up oh yeah it was it was different i mean that was it was that was crazy i've never like heard anything like that before what about the question that that i'm sure you've kind of been dealing with, but national title, first team All-American, how do you decide about going back to school or not? I don't know if you've been talking to your family, Billy Guerin, David Carl.

What's the situation like there? I mean, it's hard to all of them. I think we all kind of made the decision that it's the smartest to go back to school. I love that. It's the best decision for me. I think I all kind of made the decision that it's the smartest to go back to school. And it was the best decision for me. I think I'm young. There's no reason to rush into anything. And Minnesota feels really strong about me going back and, you know, kind of play another year.

And for me, it's like the way I ended the year development standpoint, like defensively, I felt really, really good. And I think if I can go into this year, having that, you know, tool and like skillset in a way where I know what I need defensively, then add on top of that, it only, you know, can make me better. So that's something that I, you know, I'm big on right now and, um, and trying to improve on. And then also it's a challenge like trying to defend a title is going to be tough and exciting and uh you know who doesn't want to be at school also after winning a national championship so um i think it's going to be a ton of fun i'm gonna have it's gonna be an exciting year and i'm not the same time you know

hopefully world juniors again and i'm to try and defend that as well. It's two things that you want to try and do again. I'm sure Minnesota Wild fans are thrilled, especially with the bright future they have on the back end. Has Brock Faber reached out to you after you were drafted just to kind of touch base? You guys are going to be the one-two punch back there for many years to come. Yeah.

We'll see. But, uh, not only you reached out, but I saw him like, obviously at in Minnesota. Um, and he just kind of say,

Hey, congrats, man. Like, that's awesome. Like happy for you. Like, blah,

blah, blah. So, um, you know, he talked to me a little bit. It was very quick, obviously,

but, um, it was cool to just kind of walk by him and hear him say that. But I got a text from, from a lot of them felt really cool. The experts had texted me, but it was cool to just kind of walk by him and hear him say that. But I got texts from a lot of them that felt really cool. Spurgeon texted me, Bogosian, Grisov, Boldy. So it was cool to get texts from those guys and kind of say, hey, welcome to Minnesota. So, yeah. That's cool.

Yeah, that's actually pretty cool to see those guys. What did Kaprizov text you? Like, what was it? Could you read it to us pass me the fucking puck and rush i think you like i mean you just said like congratulations but uh i gotta read it it's on my phone though but oh yeah it's like the english was so bad and it's like we'll see you good like i don't know it's something like just you couldn't even fully understand but it wasn't like bad like you could obviously read it but there was like maybe two or a word or a letter just kind of like just shouldn't be in that spot for this summer what what do you do like how many

times you be on the ice i like asking the younger guys to skate more now so say you go back to school end of august the next like six weeks will you skate three four days a week or will you just be off ice training how does your training work right now? Like for me, I just kind of plan it out. Like I'm going to world junior summer showcase and you know, a couple of weeks and you know, we skate every day there for, you know, 10 days or whatnot. So it's like, I'm not going to burn myself out right now and skate, you know, four or five times a week for me, like the off ice part in the summer is, is more important to me where it's like how do i make my body stronger and prepare myself for you know a better year physically and then on the ice

i mean i'll get on the ice maybe you know two three times a week at max maybe maybe twice you know at the max sometimes um you know through a week so it just kind of depends on how i feel like if i want to skate more i'll skate more but um you, um, you know, I think for me, it's like, you don't need to, to kill your, your hips and your legs and your back or whatnot from, from skating all the time, but really try to focus on, on the gym part where I'm still young to still develop my body and, um, you know, get bigger and stronger. So I'm not gonna, um, you know, take that part away because I want to go skate. I don't want to get you in trouble cause you're going back for another year but uh any good david carl stories he seems very

very intense like do you ever catch him like laughing it is like you guys joke around the locker room was he just having that uh was he just having that type of attitude on our podcast or is he very straight and narrow i mean he's he's pretty like i don't know like i see him differently for some reason like all the guys at denver like say kind of the same thing but like for some reason i i see that part but at the same time like i see it like i think he's just very like calm and relaxed and people just kind of read if you're the best player so it works a little different for the guys no but like i'm just like we have conversations like like you'll you know they'll like we have a night really nice locker room and we have a like a nice

setup where everyone kind of is always in the same like play the same time and like he'll come out and the other coaches we're all talking uh you know they'll all be like oh my god like he's like yeah like yeah and i'm like what do you like he's like he's he's you know 10 years older than you know the oldest guy on our team he's not like you know what i mean like he's obviously well respected so much and like he's got so much knowledge but it's like you can also have a conversation with him he's a great dude like i think he's just so calm and like relaxed that he kind of mentally just fucks people because they're like holy you know like this guy's like so is that the case where he's always very

even keel or is there a snap show inside where if you guys aren't practicing top to standard or maybe not playing up to his standard does he ever elevate or is he always in that that neutral mode he almost just kind of looks at you like if you do something really stupid, like mess up real bad or whatever, he doesn't really yell, but he'll just look at you and give you this talk and just make you feel like the biggest idiot. It's worse than getting yelled at. It's worse.

I remember I had said something. Me and Rizzo were yelling at each other or something on the bench he was telling me like passing the puck and i ended up passing the puck and he turns it over and he like trips the guy and i get back to the bench i'm never passing him again like you know like just fired up at dc like right after right after the period just pulls me over he just stares me as he goes never say that shit again and i was like yeah i gotcha and it's like he just he just kind of like it'll just like he'll make you feel it like you know what i mean you make you make sure you know uh you know what he's trying to say and then he's like all right go on well speaking of getting into it with teammates have you did ever get into it with your brother?

You guys are playing a lot together. Like, what if he throws you a couple grenades in the first period? You go back to the bench and say, bro, you better fucking. You're lucky to get a scholarship here, bitch. Yeah, you'll be riding my fucking coattails ever since I committed before you on your trip, bitch. No, it is awesome. I think, you know,

like, he always would yell at me and say, don't pass him on the power play. And everyone's like, I'm like, dude, like, I'm the only, like, he's the only guy that passes you on the power play. Like, it's, all I did was this way and just send you right back to him. And it was his job to either fuck up or do something with it. And

so, you know, he would, like, he would joke about that on the bench and he'd yell at me to pass him the puck more and so you know he was like he would joke we joke about that on the bench and he'd yell at me to pass in the puck more and then uh you know kind of midway through the year when i started to kind of understand you know how my year was going i was like you know screw you i'm not passing you the puck i'm keeping this puck hey hey coach carl said look you off we're not going to your side anymore it is good and i mean here you get on me sometimes with little things that would be like if i'm slagging defensively i mean one time i lost my i see like red sometimes is what like they like to call it i'll just i'll say things that i don't

even know what i'm saying i'm just rambling and kind of yelling and um it was like midway through the year we weren't doing well i wasn't you know feeling the best with my game and uh something had happened on the ice and i'd kind of i got in lock and i'm just like screaming about something and yelling bitching at the forwards and and telling me to like do better on the walls or whatever and shy is like if you don't fucking stop yelling i'm gonna yell at you and like all the guys like just everyone just went silent and everyone's like just like laughing their ass off like big big brother just took over yeah i just ran your show yeah that's good that's good stuff that's a good dynamic yeah well buddy we thank

you so much for joining us i don't know if you had any more but just an incredible story of uh your parents coming over and uh a success, really, with all hard work and determination, really with the whole family. So congratulations to you and all of them and all your guys' success. And I hope your brother has a long career as well. And I look forward to seeing you in a wild jersey very soon. Thank you, guys. This is awesome. Thank you guys for having me.

Anytime. And have a great summer man it's gonna be pretty cool like knowing you're going back to school for the excitement with pioneer fans and you guys will be looking to get it done again actually i would were you at shattuck with celebrini or did you miss each other yeah no we were there for a year uh i mean we hung out we would you know go skate together went out so like, I've known him since, since then. And he's phenomenal kid, obviously. He's awesome.

Just, just a humble, like just, just great kid. I mean, I love giving him shit just cause I don't think he gets enough shit. So we'll, we'll give each other shit.

But, um, I like to say he's just got a losing record to me. So we're, we're good. Every, every tournament I've won and he's lost. And so we're good. Oh God, here won and he's lost, and so we're good.

Oh, God. Here we go. Last one. Any wake surfing on the agenda? Do you do any wake surfing in the summer or no? Is that not your sport? I mean, we don't really. We go to the beach, so we're not really wake surfing.

People will surf. I'm not the biggest surfer, but I'll go to the beach. I like to wake surf before, but not a lot. Okay. Good to know. people will serve i'm not the biggest surfer but um i mean i'll go to the beach school you know i like to wake serve a week surf before but yeah not a lot okay good to know business lessons have a great rest of your summer and uh and a good rookie camp with the minnesota wild and uh look forward to seeing you in denver next year thank you guys yeah this is awesome have a great one zee appreciate it thank you what's up guys i need to talk to you about labatt blue light whether you're at a Great one, Zeev. Appreciate it. Thank you. What's up, guys?

I need to talk to you about Labatt Blue Light. Whether you're at a beer league or just watching some hockey with your squad, you cannot find a better beer than a fresh Labatt Blue Light. Lots of things are better together. Hockey, food, golf. But if you really want to take things to the next level, drink some Labatt Blue Lights with your friends and live life to the power of we. I cannot stop thinking about back to September when we did the Chicklets Cup and had endless Labatts. I'm sure Sabres Mafia has consumed their fair share of Blue Lights this summer, especially after their off season. No offense, Buffalo,

no offense, but there is nothing like a fresh Labatt Blue Light on the golf course. Maybe even during a sandbagger as well. You've seen us mix that in during the little golf matches we crush around YouTube and rumble. So remember, take a page out of the Labatt Blue Light book and enjoy your beers together so you can live life to the power of we. Find Labatt Blue Light at labattusa.com slash finder. That's labattusa.com slash finder. That's labattusa.com slash finder. Thank you so much to Ziv Bouyem.

What a story. What a player. Great kid. We appreciate him coming on so much. It's going to be pretty special watching what's in store for that kid in his future and what he'll do in the NHL. So awesome to see that and to talk to him. Biz, I don't know if you had anything,

but I think now we just throw it over to Milarchuk in an incredibly emotional interview that I think everyone will really enjoy. Yeah, originally his friend reached out and we were going to do it just like on Zoom, but given the impact of the interview and the seriousness of it, it just made sense because he lives in Reno

for him to come down and meet us at the NHL draft and awards in Vegas. So we can't thank Clint Melarchuk enough for his time and for, you know, being vulnerable and opening up and helping a lot of people, whether it's through this interview or through his ranch or anything else he does for charity. So without further ado, Clint Melarchuk. So without further ado, Clint Malarchuk. Well, it's a pleasure to welcome our next guest. This goalie was taken 74th overall by the Nordiques at the 1981 NHL Draft.

He spent his first five seasons in Quebec before moving on to Washington and Buffalo to finish his 10-season NHL career. Then he finished up his pro career here in the old IHL with Vegas. Thanks so much for joining us on the Spit and Chicklets podcast. Clint Malachuk, how are you doing, my friend? Holy fuck, Clint. That would be the last time I already talked. No shit. I tell you what. Ten. I counted 12, but you did the research, so whatever you want, R.A. You're the guy. You're the guy. How how you doing these days brother i'm doing good i'm doing pretty good it's been hectic this vegas oh my god i i left my room at at like 40 minutes and i'm late because it's i'm old too you know and i've got concussions and and i am so lost and you guys were where is

he where is he and i'm like i'm trying boys no, it's because the hotel we're at right now, the Venetian, it's like the never-ending hallways. Three different elevators to get up to Grinnelli's room that's on the third floor. Right. And I'm an old goalie, so that's really hurting. That's not good for me. And another thing, it doesn't seem like you're much of a city guy

because, I mean, you were raised in grand prairie alberta and then currently you live on a ranch in reno nevada well about an hour south of reno yeah okay cool and obviously you probably do a lot with horses riding yeah i do uh me and my colleague a veterinarian uh he and i i do horse dentistry and chiropractic, and together he's a full-fledged vet, and we do semen testing on bulls. I know that's going to, you're going to go, what is that? Basically, yeah, you're- Why the fuck are you looking at me like that, Clint?

Because you're going, you're semen testing bulls. Yeah, how's it taste? Oh, Jesus, no way. Oh, my God, I cannot believe you said, well, I can. I've listened to you. You're getting a bull to ejaculate. You've got a microscope. You count the swimmers and the deads, and the bull's got to pass.

You've got to measure his scrotal circumference. And you asked me to do that to you when I walked in, and i said well i i do have the microscope with me that's what most girls need to find it right it's not a stupid question clint but what do do horses get like cavities filled no okay no no i mean no i know i'm not the only one that was wondering it in terms of the horse dentist you You could do that, but we usually just extract it. Pull them. Yeah. So was that all because you finished up playing for Vegas in the IHL

and then stayed out here? Or were you all over different places before you came back here? I went from Vegas to Idaho. I coached the West Coast Hockey League, which merged with the ECHL. And as a coach, you're hired to be fired. They hired a new GM. Yeah, we might keep you. It was July and they were still.

And so I'm like, what else do I know? I just know hockey. That's it. That's it. No, I know horses. So I went, I looked up some things. My back, I had back surgery and stuff so i didn't want to be a farrier and and i looked up some things go to horse dental school and i became a horse

dentist wow and next thing you know a year later i'm back in the nhl as a goalie coach but i've kept my practice and and you know it was always seasonal uh you know hockey in the winter and horses in the summer and now I'm pretty much full time. I do a lot of public speaking. But between that, it's, you know, my cattle horse business and public speaking. So horses was a passion for you that's similar to hockey. Like you always, they're a part of your life growing up and teenage years. Yeah.

I had two passions. You know, hockey, obviously you guys know this. It's our, you know, yeah. I had two passions. You know, hockey, obviously you guys know this. It's our, you know, obsession. But, you know, we got hobbies, and horses was a hobby, but a passionate one. I think obviously most people listening right now know your story about the tragic accident and obviously the fact that you played in the league

and were resilient enough to come back from it. But we usually like to start at the beginning, right? Obviously, you're from Alberta. And as a kid a kid like what made you fall in love with the game and what made you decide becoming a goaltender oh yeah you're insane well yeah yeah no kidding couldn't find a room here um you know growing up in northern alberta you know, hockey, it's like 11 months of winter. And, and so, you know, hockey's it, you know, you, you grew up in Boston, right. And you grew up, you know, they're hockey cultures. And I grew up that, uh, my brother who was seven years older, which is a big age difference was a goalie, but more importantly, my dad was a goalie too. Didn't wear a mask, one of the old, you know,

and he played at a pretty high level. And so I just wanted to be a hockey player, but I wanted to be a goalie. But they would not let me be a goaltender until I could skate. They knew that skating, and it doesn't matter how fast you go as a skater, but you've got to use edges, you know. And now, of course, we all know that. But back then it was like, no, just getting the goal, you know, a fat of course we all know that but back then it was like no just getting the goal you know fat kid or you know kid that can't skate so so like how did they

test your edges and how did they make you work in order to earn the right to strap on the pads was it something that your father was bringing to the rink and doing no it wasn't that back then no they just need i needed to know how to skate you know i wasn I wasn't going to be the, you know, back then it was the kid that couldn't skate, put him in goal, or the fat kid, put him in goal, or, you know, just, or the goofy, you know, the kid that needed anything, put him in goal because no one wanted to play goal, really. I mean, especially then the masks weren't great

and I started without a mask myself, as you can see. And, but they couldn't raise the puck that looked kind of like you guys yeah yeah i couldn't well wick could i couldn't yeah wick could but uh did you when you finally strapped on the pads did you find that you were like like an above average goaltender did you feel like you were accelerating and no oh not right away no i did i did also see that, um, you, you dealt with anxiety as a kid too. Oh boy. Like hockey was your only escape and the only time that you could really,

truly get out of your own head and just really enjoy the moment. Yeah. Um, you know, at first, uh, I wasn't, I was okay, but then I went to hockey school and learned about goaltending and, and of course my dad and big brother were always there too. But when you go to, you don't listen to your parents or your brother you know you listen to you you go to a hockey school oh these guys are smart you know and that that's when i started to really uh get yeah but uh getting back to the other thing about the anxiety uh god bless my dad he was a great guy but he was an abusive alcoholic when he drank and he drank a lot and a lot and a lot and a lot,

a lot more as time went on. So things got, so there was a lot of anxiety at home. Uh, just, you know, maybe worried about what kind of mood he's going to be if I drink in. So I, I always tell this story. I'd be coming home late at night, you know, pulling my hockey gear on a toboggan across this big snow field. And I noticed my anxiety was getting, you know, what I, as a kid, you don't think about it, but now I look back and go, I didn't know what I was coming home to. That's why I was feeling that way. Yep. Is dad hammered?

Is he yelling and screaming and throwing crap at my mom? You know, and, he i like to say this because when i wrote my book i think i was kind of hard on him and i i reflect back now and i go you know i do understand the disease and you know that wasn't him he was a good man it was the the disease maybe the way he was raised too, like he had some empathy for him. He grew up in a bowling alley pool hall. His parents ran a bowling alley and a pool hall in Grand Prairie,

which is a very small town then. So yeah, he grew up in a tough, little bit rough culture, I would say. When did you notice that, wow, I'm getting pretty good at this? Like I got some talent here and maybe the NHL wasn't on your mind yet but you're like all of a sudden i'm i'm way better than i was before okay i'm gonna state start off by stating that i was a very insecure person probably because of my default mode was guilt and shame because of my dad and and that so

and i'm still really, really an insecure man, believe it or not. And we all can relate to things. You just have to be honest about it. We're all insecure in certain ways, but I think when I really probably I was about 14 and my brother was playing major junior and I thought that was the NHL to me.

You know, they're wearing suit and ties to games, and I'm going and watching this. And I thought, wow, these guys were my heroes. But I was starting to really kind of get pretty good then. And, you know, my brother was a great mentor. And by then, Dad was pretty much out of the picture. So my big brother, Garth, I know you're going Garth and Clint. My mother knew Garth Black and, uh, uh,

Clint Black and Garth Brooks way back. No, she named us those actually. Um, but yeah, that's, that's kind of, I looked up to him so much.

So around that time, was that really the first time you'd ever felt like validation because of like, you started having success? Wow. They're getting deep. Aren't you huh yeah um it's like i i really struggled with the anxiety and i had undiagnosed ocd obsessive compulsive disorder which probably helped me in in certain way we all got it you know to play in

the hl you have to have a degree but but what but what, absolutely. Um, but when it takes over your life is when it, you know, it was a problem and you can't control it and it becomes away from the game or whatever. Um, but yeah, it was my hockey was my everything. It was my freedom. It was because I didn't feel normal. I looked at other kids and they're happy and everything. And maybe I looked happy to them i don't know but i sure wasn't inside i was you know my guts were churning and had a lot of a lot of anxiety and and depression and and you got to remember when you're a kid you don't think about like what's wrong with me you you might say what is wrong with me but you don't think well this is

depression or well even i mean and back then not saying you're old oh yeah you are you you said that when i walked in the door yeah you turned me right away you ugly motherfucker so i get you back a little bit but back then i mean you're not people would be like what are you talking about toughen up you're fine oh absolutely um like remember you know we grew up in a culture of you you know, don't cry, you know, it'd be tough, push you. And that's our society. And that's why there's such a stigma surrounding mental illness because no one wants to talk

about we're getting way better. But I'm going back a few years and, uh, you know, I'll, you know, like the, your cry as a kid, I'll give you something to cry about. You get, I'll smack your ass. Um, you know, so we grew up with that culture and hockey especially it's a it's no offense but back well the women didn't play back when i you know was playing it was a man's game and i mean man and there was guys you know there were like guys played back then that if they weren't tough, they would, they, they would cut your eye out, you know, and the rules were different back then, but

you know, if they couldn't fight, but everybody had some grit to them or you couldn't play, you couldn't play. And you guys experienced part of that too. Although we've talked about old WHL days, you played in the Portland Winterhawks. Yeah. And I guess I'd like, it's kind of two parts. Like one, how did you get up? How did you end up there?

Because you're from so far north in Alberta. And then two, what was it like then? I mean, those are the days of the brawls and the 300, 400 penalty minute guys. We've had old WHL players kind of talk about the madness. Yeah. Well, exactly. Like, you know, they ended up making a rule in the WHL where teams had to warm up separately.

Yeah, we've heard that. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, I know because we would brawl in warmups and, you know, like I, as a goalie, I mean, I love fighting. Did you get in some dilt as a goalie? Oh, are you kidding me?

Do you think I got this nose from kissing? Yeah. You know? Come on. You got a right hook there. No, I'm kidding, right? No, I love fighting. But as you know, you got to like it or you're not going to last.

Even as a goaltender too back then. That's crazy. Yeah. Did you fight other goalies or some opposition players? Oh, you got to Google Milarchuk versus Gamble. Good one. Troy Gamble? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Google Google Milarczuk versus Gamble. Good one. Troy Gamble. Yeah.

Google that. It was in the IHL, but I felt, and Troy, I know him and he's a great guy and I hammered the shit out of him. And after I saw him,

I was like, he was all, I was like, Troy, I'm sorry, but you know, you went, you started it. And he kept his mask on.

I took it off and he kept his blocker on. Oh it off and he kept his blocker on. Yeah. Kept his blocker. You got what? Six or eight inches extension. And I had some knots, but oh, I killed him. So, um, like how, how was it for you to make that transition where I'm assuming, was that

the first time you really moved away from home and you talked about the things that you dealt with at home and, and, and all the anxiety and the mental and the stuff. Okay. When I moved away from home, my first year I was in Portland and I was so homesick. I had a horrible year. Oh, I was, yeah, I was so homesick because I went through a lot with my dad and mom and my mom and I really kind of supported each other. Kind of abnormally close. Okay.

Dysfunctionally close. I'm trying to find the right word but we had a bond because you know she had to go back in the workforce my dad was you know cheating and and drinking and you know it was it was really rough at home you were supporting her shoes exactly exactly and so i missed mom i worried about mom and i was just so homesick i was so homesick. I almost quit hockey. I almost came home. I don't know if I would have quit hockey, but I would have come home and, you know, and I was so, I would, I would call her and I want to come home when she finally

said, Clint home is always here for you. So if you want to come home, come home. So just kind of that switch. Yeah. that I can go whenever. Yeah. The comfort. Made me go, okay, I can go. Because everybody, and I was not just talking to her, my brother, everybody, Clint, you got to do this.

You got to stick it out. You got to stick it out. Well, you guys don't know what I feel. And when they said, no, you can come home. I was like, okay, I got this then. Kind of like the one day at a time did you have like goalie coaches then was that before the age of goalie coaches oh way before yeah yeah yeah so it's kind of hard if you had a coach who didn't know much about the position it was like a little bit on your own yeah well i think so much of of goalie coaching now it's like

a puppy mill they all do that you know it's probably the same with d and forwards you know anyways um the technical part but it's so and you guys know this the mental part to play at a high level with the pressure and that's what i focused on with uh with you know with my goalies when i was a goalie coach in the nhl was making sure um you know like like with Bob Hartley I had Mika Kiprasov in Calgary and Bob Hartley and it was like oh my god these two aided each other come on oh yeah and I was just a fireman I was putting fires out all the time how could you hate Mika Kiprasov oh I didn't hate Mika oh I'm saying for for Hartley like how could you hate mika kripasov oh i didn't hate me oh i'm saying for for artley like how could you hate he seems like the most likable guy in the world because uh oh he is he and he's a

funny guy once you get did you do you know him do you play with no but we've heard so many silly stories about him how he lives outside of uh calgary and he he loved mowing his lawn he would have a couple pops oh yeah and then uh what was the other story he was driving to the rink and he was catching the rocks coming out the window on the highway so just seemed like really silly lovable guy oh a great guy but he very quiet what you got to get into his um trust if he when he once he trusts you he opens up like uh johan hedberg i think was the his goalie partner in kentucky when uh san jose that was her farm team and he told me that mika pretended he couldn't speak english for two years the coach didn't because he didn't want to talk to the coach so the media or the media yeah yeah exactly yeah um i got one so just going back to port Portland, so you have that tough first season.

What happened during that offseason to hit the reset button for you to strive to come back and be an even better goalie? Who were the people you leaned on in order to get there? And I would assume at that point, after that first year in Portland, you probably had aspirations of playing in the NHL, but it seemed like such a far, far, far goal. Yeah, especially after my first year, I was terrible.

My second year, yeah, I got my shit together mentally and doubled down. You know, this is going to sound kind of sucky, but my mom was my best friend, my best support, and my brother. You know, my brother became my father figure, you know, after dad had gone and, and, and everything. So I had, I had that kind of support and, you know, I, I had some great coaches and, you know, one of the things I want to talk about, or we can talk about at the end is that the U S hockey hall Hall of Fame, you can get on the link and go to the Hall of Honor, I think it's called, and enshrine somebody,

donate some money, and I could enshrine Biz and say, you know what, you made a difference to me. You coached me when I was a kid. And there was a man that really did impact me. He knew my dad, and they were friends, and he knew the dark side of my dad, and he really took me under his wing. He had a son that I played with and he coached us and he would be a guy, he's deceased now,

but he would be a guy that I am going to enshrine him at the U.S. Hall of Honor, at the USA Hockey Hall of Fame. Hall of Honor at the USA Hockey Hall of Fame. And the money, 50% goes to, or 80% goes to the ranch and 20% to the hall. And, you know, we can all do that as parents, as coaches, as players. You know, somebody impacted you. Somebody impacted you. You know, so we got to, wow, that'd be so cool because the guy never played in the NHL, never coached the NHL, but he impacted you as a player when you were growing up. It might not even be a coach.

I was just going to go to your draft. Now, I'm assuming you didn't go to the draft, and after your third year in Portland, obviously you hadn't had enough success at that point where you ended up getting drafted fourth round by the Nordiques. Were you expecting to be drafted? Well, I expected to be drafted well i expected to be drafted my 18 year old season even though i didn't play well my agent was like oh you'll

still get drafted you'll still get drafted and i didn't i was freaking devastated you know agents don't do this don't tell them no don't do this yeah um and then the next year i was i was confident that i would get drafted probably real late and you know for a goalie fourth round it's not that bad um and then that draft like when right around where i went it was van biesbroek wendell young there was like five of us at boom like one two three four five and uh uh yeah i was elated. And it was to Quebec. And I grew up in Western Canada. And, of course, that, you know, the tensions and that. And my grandma was anti-Trudeau, Pierre Trudeau back then.

And, oh, my God, how am I going to tell grandma I'm going to Quebec? Traitor. Yeah. Guess you didn't speak too much French either. I tried. traitor guess you didn't speak too much french either yeah i tried i got kicked out of uh of the so for the english guys in quebec um we had a most of most of the players were french back then and we had the stassny brothers and uh so there's me dale hunter and maybe a handful five guys that were english so they tried. So they bring this tutor in after practice.

And I was a horrible student, especially because of my anxiety. I just hated school, and I thought I was stupid and everything. And so we're sitting around this French class, and they all knew a little bit because they were good students or decent students. I don't know about Hunter, it they go you know and in the stupid bitch would say it in french and i don't know any french and and the guy my teammate would go uh and then they go everybody would do that to come to me I'm like, and then she got pissed because I'm not answering. She goes, in English, she goes, where do you live?

I said, oh, I'm about two blocks from the rink here. And she got pissed at me. She thought I was fucking with her. And she threw me out. While you were in the NHL? Yes. Quebec. Yeah.

Thank God I didn't go home. I don't want this. I'm going home. Thank you, lady. But you know. That's a tough transition. Oh, my God. How was the crowd there then?

Our crowd? Yeah, great. Awesome. Unreal. That is a hockey. There could still be a team there. I think absolutely 100%. The Quebec-Montreal rivalry, obviously they're not a team,

so you don't talk about it, but that was intense. People talk about Montreal-B, Nordiques, Canadian. Yeah. Amazing. They, I mean, we brawled them in the playoff. Good Friday Massacre. Were you in Boston? Yeah, you know that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You follow that stuff. Yeah. What's the Friday Massacre? You don't know the Good Friday Massacre? No, but I'm fucking, come on.

I was born in 85. You were probably like, what, 40 years old by then? Little fuck. I love this guy. Oh, so it was, let's see. It's a playoff game. I think it was an elimination game for us. It might've been.

Anyways. So, you know Dale Hunter. You got to know Dale Hunter. Oh yeah. He's a tough customer. You don't fuck with him. A shit disturber like you would not believe. So anyways, I think it was, yeah,

end of the second period, we have a line brawl, and then a full brawl, okay? Refs, they get it all sorted out. Then we dropped a puck for the third period, brawl again. So I got kicked out, and I wasn't even playing. I had this, I was doing a podcast or something and they go, hey Clint, how does somebody not play one minute in an NHL game but get 17 minutes in penalties?

I'm like, what are you talking about? That was the Good Friday Massacre because we bench clearing brawl. And yeah, it was. So you just go pick their backup goalie? That's just like, who'd you square off with? They should have picked their star. I was trying to get, I was trying to protect Dale

because they were all trying to get at Dale Hunter, and Dale was my buddy, I mean, he was my roommate, we were cellmates, I mean, we did everything together. And yeah, so I was trying to keep an eye on it, and then all of a sudden, Richard 70, their backup grabbed me. And this really pisses me off because I like fighting, but I was a rookie. I was a rookie and I thought, I don't want to hurt the team. I don't know the route.

Like, what if I, you know, get penalized and put the team in? It's a playoff game. So I didn't, I didn't actually like really chuck them with them. playoff game so i didn't i didn't actually like really chuck him with him and now then that following that year he has to get uh traded uh to quebec and i get sent to the fucking minors i should have fed that prick yeah yeah i should i should have put it up i should have put him in a coma yeah because you were up and down and then i see him in the shower in training camp i'm like fuck are you kidding me? He really is. I kind of want to know more stories about Dale Hunter.

Oh, I got a million. Let's go. He put a fucking quarter in him. Our best one was we fly to LA, and we're flying commercial. We played in Minnesota. We were commercial back then, and we were flying. And Dale and I got the idea, let's get the guys, because Dale is a farm kid, and I'm a ranch kid.

And we thought, hey, these guys never even touched a horse. So let's take them on a trail ride or something because we're going to L.A. We got five days. So we're going to L.A. and we're going to take a puddle jumper to Palm Springs for a little vacation, a team bonding. And so all the guys are like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That'd be so cool so anyways we get to la fly to palm springs they lose our luggage so no one we wore suit and ties you know so no one's gonna go ride a horse in a suit and tie except clinton larcher and dale hunter we don't give a

shit in fact dale does not give a shit we go on a 10-day road trip and he'd bring a toothbrush here can you put this in your bag and maybe if oh yeah oh yeah and a change of shorts maybe like okay that's it yeah yeah that's it oh he's so you so you guys end up taking the flight over to palm springs and yeah and they and our luggage is lost so the guys are you know oh and we're on a golf resort and you know so dale says screw this we're gonna go let's do it so we go down the road we rent these horses and and they they gave us beer you could buy beer there's saddlebags pack the beer and we're we're off there and we're you know it's hot and then we go up in the mountains hills i guess and we're up there and we stop and we're cowboys we got to make a fire what's 100

degrees out here but we gotta have a fire to have beer and so we're drinking beer and we're cowboys. We got to make a fire. Well, it's 100 degrees out here, but we got to have a fire to have beer. And so we're drinking beer, and we're getting a little bit shit-faced. And so then we ride along this ridge, and I don't know how long we were gone, but we can look down on the golf course. The luggage must have came in because the guys are out there golfing. Hey, the boys, they're all golfing. So we go down there on our horses, and we're ripping up and down the fairways. We're pulling the pins, and Dale and I are jousting. And this guy's in a golf cart.

It says Marshall, golf Marshall. And we were going, hey, the Marshall's after me. He's chasing us on this golf cart. And we're pretending to shoot at him, you know. And we got a handful of pins, you know, golf flags. Yeah, like jolts. That's unreal. A knight's tail. the guys are just dying but you know i'm not a golfer and dale

certainly isn't a golfer we didn't know the damage we were doing i mean we're on the greens and everything in our horses hooves they're tearing it up and so the guys loved it they and dale and i now it's hot we got our ties as headbands and and our suit jackets are wrapped up like bedrolls on the back of our saddle. And we get back to where we've got to return these horses and the cops are waiting. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, no.

And we're like, oh, what do they want? We really were ignorant. We did not know this was sacred golf. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so, uh, um, did you guys, you guys mentioned selling or sharing a cell together? So is it obviously I'm assuming you didn't get

arrested that time. Was there like a bar fight in the middle? Oh yeah. Uh, uh, uh, yeah. And we got, we got reprimanded for a lot of stuff. Um, uh, you know, they pull us a weird, you know, a strip joint or, you know, whatever. And we got reprimanded for a lot of stuff. You know, they'd pull us a weird, you know, a strip joint or, you know, whatever.

Just back in the day, I mean, we did get paid a lot of money, but boy, we had fun. But yeah, we didn't get arrested. They were going to arrest us. They were going to charge us with criminal charges. But our GM,oyle and our coach Brian Murray they how much we'll we'll just pay the damages and and let's let this go back it was a different world back then different world yeah unbelievable yeah how old was David Poyle then that must have been the beginning right I wouldn't say the beginning but because pretty pretty early on but early yeah yeah yeah yeah he was in the game pretty young because he did it for so long.

Yeah. All right, well, you're just telling me Hall of Fame class, right? Yeah, yeah, you just got into Hall of Fame the other day, damn it. He's a wonderful guy. I really like Dave. He'd come up and talk to you. You know some GMs are. You never see them, and if you do, you're afraid to even talk to them.

Especially back then, coaches and gms were you know they were tough mean you know it was a different different era for sure i feel like we we glossed over the stasty brothers i mean i think they don't get enough recognition in today's world okay i'll tell you a great story excellent because it's boston all right um so we're in the playoffs we're playing the bruins intense playoffsense playoffs. You know how it is. And you know the old garden? Oh, yeah. So like you got a freaking highway or a subway over top of you.

Train station, subway. Yeah. And you walk out. And it wasn't from me to, I don't know, that camera, which is people can't see it, but 10 feet, 20 feet. And that's all from the Boston Garden to the bus. And we're all on the bus, all the players on the bus. The coaches come out and the fans are there. And they're yelling and screaming and yeah, you know. And so we just get on the bus.

But the coaches come out and somebody pushed Michelle Bergeron, our coach, and somebody saw the bus emptied, empty day and there's one cop there boston cop with a whistle going blow his whistle and it was full on i mean we kicked the shit you were fighting a bunch of fans oh yeah under the subway thing outside of boston and and and so the thing was peter stastny, and they're European and they play soccer a lot. He chased, this guy hooked Peter. And they were throwing beer bottles and everything at us. And this guy hooked Peter and Peter was pissed.

And Peter's tough, especially European, you know, they never fought back. And Peter took off after him. And I thought, oh shit, they're going away from our group. So I wanted to have his back and i'm running and peter just give that little flip with his foot soccer little trip and that guy hit the dirt and he looked up and then he crawled under a car and peter peter and i are circling the car trying to get this guy drag him out oh it was crazy before the game or after the game after the game after the game after the game christ the shit that you guys used to get up to. But we loved it.

And the thing is, most of this stuff would never even, it wouldn't get the press, right? And we thought, oh boy, the papers are going to, nothing. Nothing was ever written or heard about. That's what's amazing. Now, oh my gosh. Oh, there'd be a film. Well, there'd be lawsuits and oh my gosh, yeah.

Despite maybe all the stuff growing growing up at that point when you started establishing yourself more in the pro career especially when you were finally a full-time nhler like how was life was it a lot more like sunshine and rainbows compared to are you still really dealing with a lot of that stuff inside i always because i think I was obviously struggled as a kid uh yeah I struggled uh with anxiety and that but I a lot of times I just thought it was the game you know the pressure of the game and everything um and then like my OCD would really be bad the night before a game the day of a game and then when the game was done it was like I, I had relief. Oh yeah. I had that relief. You can relate.

Yeah. Big time. Yeah. And you were never diagnosed as mentally ill or anything like that. No, the OCD stuff. I would definitely diagnose you. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just like you talked about that anxiety, that performance anxiety. You want to make sure you're not letting anybody down and making a mistake and then getting yelled at. So I guess all that, not having, I guess as big of a leash, at least when I got to

the NHL level, it's something I can relate to with you, but it's a little bit different when you're, you're the last man back, you're the goalie. And all of a sudden now you've established yourself as a starter in the NHL. So it's not like you're, you can really hide. You're going in there most nights. Yeah. So you can relate, you guys can totally relate to that pressure, the anxiety, pregame, night before game, all that, all that.

Now do that when you do have mental illness or anxiety disorder or depression syndrome. So I always thought I was mentally weak and somebody told me not that long ago, he said, Clint, you must've been double tough because I always thought I was mentally weak. And I thought about that because you dealt, Clint Milarchuk dealt with mental illness and the pressure of an NHL goaltender. I was like, yeah, I was pretty freaking tough. Didn't feel it here or here, but yeah, yeah, for sure. Did you, um, did you meet

anyone? Did you get, uh? Did you have a girlfriend? No, because I never, never. I meant like during that period of time, did you end up meeting, did you get married when you were younger? Like when you were during your program? I've been married four times. Okay. Four? Okay.

Yeah. Holy shit. Why do you think I still work? It's cheaper to keep them. Yeah. What's half of half of half of half? Right. Not a lot. It's cheaper to keep them. what's half of half of half of half right not a lot it's cheaper to keep all right bring that bring that horse over i'll pull it out because i i am i i i pride myself

on my honesty like my book when when i wrote my book a week before it was published i i called my because i didn't i couldn't the edits they said they'll send you edits okay what do you want and i'm like i can't read it i can't read it i get anxiety and then a week before it came on the bookshelves i was like holy shit i told everything i told everything things and i was like oh my god and i remember talking to my ghostwriter, Dan Robson. I'm like, oh, my God. And I started to cry. I said, I made a huge mistake.

He goes, no, it'll be fine. And I said, no. He goes, well, you did the edits, Clint. And I said, no, I didn't. I couldn't read it. I couldn't read it. And so anyways, it ended up being a bestseller in three, four weeks, and the emails were pouring in,

thank you, thank you, thank you for your honesty, for your sincerity, humble, vulnerability, and all that. What was your question? I got off. No, I'd asked about having a wife. You had four of them. You met someone just because along that. Because, and this is vulnerability and honesty.

I'm so insecure. A girl would look at me, I'd fuck up my house and marry you and divorce you in a month. Seriously. That's how insecure I was. I never dated a girl until I was 19. What was your shortest marriage? Oh, less than a year.

And you were treating them like girlfriends. Yeah, but I'd decide. your shortest marriage oh less than a year yeah no i had a retreat on my girlfriends yeah but i designed that work yeah the money work was it was prenups not a thing back then or what i was such a you know i just you know i just thought ah she she she looked at me like impulsive like impulsive yeah That could be part of the mental. Right. But I think it was insecurity. Insecurity. For sure. No doubt.

And you get traded. You and your buddy Dio get traded to Washington together. Yeah. I told you we did everything together. But those teams, I mean, you had four Hall of Famers on that squad. You know, Langway, Gardner, Stevens, Murphy. You had some good squads there. Talk about Rod Langway for a minute.

I feel he's another guy that maybe younger audiences aren't familiar with. Rod was a machine. And, man, he could drink like you would not believe. Really? Oh, put any of us. And, you know, I mean, incredible. But show up and play and like, it's like nothing never.

He went to Norse trophies and I went one, he might've went two, I think. Yeah. He went to, yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. Yeah.

And he was old school, like old school, drink beer, work hard. Like he'd show up and work his ass off, but you know, no one could keep up with them the night before or any, yeah or any yeah he pounded how how's your i mean to cut you off how was your time in washington i know it was sort of brief there but did you enjoy your run there what do you mean brief you're the guy that said i had 10 years and it was 12 just to wash your brief and everything you're brief and everything's

pigeon tossing yeah yeah i spent two seasons there um what was it like it was it was pretty good um i i i really enjoyed the area i enjoyed the culture um i remember um one time i'm i'm in warm-ups and you know i'm kind of the new guy and uh greg ad Adams comes by. He goes, be ready. I'm not starting. He goes, be ready. I'm like, well, that's kind of an insult because you always think you're ready.

He goes, be ready. He kept saying, skating by me, be ready. And I'm like, what? And he knew that Pete Peters, my partner, and Pete is a great guy, one of the nicest people you ever want to meet. But if he didn't feel a hundred and ten percent he pulled a shoot and sure as shit that game he pulled the shoot and and and i didn't know this and greg was saying and they knew that the players knew that i didn't know it

but you know some players are i'm not built way. I don't think you two are. Because we're two probably, you know, we weren't that good. No offense. No, no. It's like the first baseman for the Yankees. You never want to give up your spot because you feel like you might lose it. Perfect. What's the guy's name I'm thinking of?

Wally Pipp. Yeah, yeah. And guys like us, we were always looking over our shoulder. We'd play hurt. We'd play through pain because you could all be gone. It could all be gone because that one game that you don't play, somebody else plays and they light it up and all of a sudden you're in the minors. Yeah.

Yeah. You guys get this. You guys get this. I mean, obviously we wanted to get to Buffalo in your time there. And I guess we can go right to the incident. And I guess we'll just hand it over to you to walk us through it and what was going through your mind at the time. And I know afterward, you really suffered from a lot of PTSD based on the injury and

the fact that it almost took your life. yeah i thought it was std oh for christ and then they said no no clint it's ptsd oh okay i hope i can beat that yeah well i didn't take more than a z-pack though no no you know i you know i i i i never thought i was very good as a player you know i had a decent career but um i it was like i came back so quick because of what we just talked about everybody thinks oh wow no i had to um come back quick okay yeah i'll get back to your question yeah okay the skate cut me i hate talking about this well yeah because like there's some people who might be listening from a younger audience who don't understand don't know the situation right you could walk us through it from start to finish if that's okay with you if it brings up too many bad memories no no no i, no. I do it all the time.

I will get emotional. I hope I don't, but I usually do. And you know what? I'm a tough fucking prick. If anybody wants to call me a pussy because I cry, come here. Yeah, let's go. I'll feed your fucking face while I cry. Right.

Okay? Right. You know, I'm not the biggest guy, but boy, you don't want to, you, I anyways. So yeah. Uh, first period, uh, we're playing St. Louis and Buffalo and, uh, I get a skate and, uh, it's not how, it's not important how it happened or anything, but what's important is the blood squirted probably six feet. And I knew.

Right from your neck? Yep. Cut the jugular and I knew. This is bad. I've got maybe two or three minutes here. And I really was like, holy shit, I'm dying. I am dying right now. Uh, so mentally I prepared for death and this is where the PTSD comes, comes in. And, um, so, and, and this is kind of an important story going forward on the journey that you know we can talk about uh with me so i'm

preparing for death like terry gregson was a referee his eyes are big players are looking at me everybody's looking at me and i'm going i'm fucked i am so when you prepare for death, certain things go through your mind. You pray, or I prayed, and I thought, man, I've got two minutes to repent. That's not long enough. I need a couple hours here. And so the game was on TV. Back then, you know, satellite and that. And I knew my mom was watching the game.

And I thought, oh, shit. I got to get off the ice. I do not want her to see her son die on TV. How fucked would that be? So I got up. I got up. Jim Pizzatelli, our medical trainer came to me. I'm sure you guys seen the video.

He was awesome. A lot of people don't know that he was a Vietnam medic. No way. Okay. You think about this for a second. How many people are trained for that? Not many. He'd seen it before.

So there was a lot of God shots in here. Had I been at the other end of the ice and not by the end where the exit in our dressing room is, I probably wouldn't have made it. Jim Pizzatelli being a medic probably wouldn't have made it with another guy. He's got to save my life in front of 18,000 people in a TV audience. Calm. So I get in the medical room. I told Rip Simone. I'd only been traded there like three weeks before, so I didn't know.

But goalies always get close with equipment guys. I don't know why. And Rip, Simone is just a freaking great guy. And I said, Rip, come here, hold my hand. I'm dying. And I told another trainer, I said, call my mom, tell her I love her. Because we talked about my mom and closeness and the bond. So I'm totally preparing for death is my point.

Well, long story short, I go to the hospital. They saved my life. Next day, I did a press conference. There was people calling. People are sick. People are calling saying, oh, I'm his sister. I'm his aunt. It's media trying to get in into the hospital.

Yeah, yeah. People were trying to get in there. So a hospital administrator came to me and said, hey, Clint, maybe we should just do a press conference and get this done i said whatever it takes because i'm tired of this shit and so early for that well i did the one day one day i did a press conference and i was pretty emotional because you know what i've been through and then I was so, I wanted to go see the cancer kids.

Yeah. I lived. Yeah. I survived. But I want to see the cancer kids because they don't know, right? They're, you know. Maybe if you can lift their spirits a little bit, you're saying. Yeah, because in Buffalo, Buffalo, the sabers are freaking gods yeah oh you got the goalie of the sabers and i thought yeah

and i just i don't know what i don't even know why i thought i was very emotional and so grateful that i was alive and then i thought about those kids and they they don't know yet you know they're fighting so i went and saw them and then the administrator said uh can we do a second press conference and i said all right so all this trauma is so fresh and we don't know ptsd back there we don't know nothing and and one of the like people ask me uh do you regret coming back as quick as you did like in 10 days soon as and i said no that's how it's brought up you get bucked off a horse you get goddamn back on it face your fear right get over it and teach that horse too but i wish counseling was offered and i never thought of it either i had no and when richard

zednick cut his jugular vein uh in 2008 i heard and i was so grateful that everybody was offered counseling teammates coaches anybody that was directly involved was offered counseling no i i did it all on my own and that's the way it was um but that second press conference i i lost it i bawled my eyes out i just i just fucking drained emotionally your body was probably ready to come back and play but it's your mind where we're like okay i could go back and play goalie right now but even if i don't realize what i've gone through my mind isn't ready to be back playing hockey yet like you're not over what had happened and no one else would have been either so it is weird that even then somebody wouldn't have been just take another week take another three weeks oh no wits the doctors were telling me oh do not

do this you you can't come back number one you need you've lost a third of your body's blood. You're weak. It takes time to regenerate. Yeah. You gotta, yeah. You know what it's like to be a pro athlete, you know? And, and, and another doctor said, you know, maybe you, you know, what was I?

I think I was 27 or something. Maybe you should retire. And I'm like, fuck that. Maybe fucking retire. And I'm like, I still got some years, but they did. I was totally told to not come back for that season. It was March 22nd. Back then we didn't play till fucking August, you know.

You know, but we were in playoffs two weeks later, I think, and I wanted to get back for playoffs, you know. two weeks later, I think, and I wanted to get back for playoffs. You know, and, you know, I had to prove a lot to the media, to the coaches, to management, because all this shit was being written. Oh, he'll never be the same. He's done. He'll never be the same goal.

He's done. He's done. So that was probably the most insulting thing about it all is the fact that you're willing to come back so quick and put your body on the line and you want it to be back. And all of a sudden all these people are, are writing you off. Now did, did the impact of that injury and everything that went with it,

did it amplify everything that was going on before? Or did it maybe give you a new perspective on everything where maybe. That's a great question. So I had so much much i became a hero in buffalo i mean that's a blue collar sports right they love guys that are hard working gritty courageous no talent i i fit it all i fit it all and i really became like uh i'm serious a hero fit at all and i really became like uh i'm serious a hero like when they uh i think it was a couple days after i got out of the hospital the pr guy comes says clint uh can you just wave to the fans you know we're getting all this you know stuff from the fans house clinic and so uh middle of the game i'm in a suit uh i got a big old freaking bandage on my neck and um

they whistle they opened the zamboni doors and i had to stand and wave to they stood and cheered i almost collapsed i was shaking so bad and now i'm pretty weak from loss of blood. And I'm like, holy, it looks like RA after a road trip. He doesn't look so good even now. Never mind. The end of one. Okay. Well,

I don't even want to see that. The end of the road trip. But, yeah. And so if I got through that season, just, you know, it's funny because I did a book signing in Buffalo. I don't know, seven years ago, five years ago.

And I was asked, my wife asked me, she was with me. This is number eight. And she's never been to Buffalo. She goes, what's Buffalo like? I said, you know, big, another American city, you know, but the people are freaking awesome. They're freaking awesome. Do never say New York as New York because they are the very humble kind. Anyways, and she wasn't there two hours ago.

Oh, my God, these people are so fantastic. But I have, like like i'm still a freaking hero there 35 years after this and um there's a band in in buffalo new york called malarchuk and they're fucking horseshit no seriously there's a band called malarchuk so did the reciprocation of all that love like that was probably the first time at your pro career where you felt like you were kind of. Yeah, because as insecure, I was like you guys, we worked for every little bit of ice time and that, you know. Yeah, that's like I went, whoa, this is kind of cool.

But I was playing the best hockey in my life. I got traded from Washington to Buffalo and I was on fire. I mean, I feel like things were hitting me. i normally like shit i can't stop that fuck you know that one was going in yeah no kidding especially on me you know like five old holy crap i closed my five old yeah yeah and uh and uh yeah and then that happened and so like they were not going to make the playoffs. Everything was just like, it's weird to describe. Like I saved, I got the, I got them in the playoffs and then that happened. And then I'm a hero.

And I got through the season, like with this adrenaline and, and it was the next season that my life changed, changed a hundred percent, even going into training camp and i came back to prove everybody wrong there are still the questions in the media will he be the you know meet you you're media now you yeah and uh and i'm like i thought i already did that i proved but they were right And I'm like, fuck, I thought I already did that. I proved it. But they were right. That season, I started to have panic attacks, nightmares.

I'd wake straight up in bed, grabbing my neck, sweating, and grabbing my neck. I was like, you know in the movies when you see that, that shit doesn't happen. I was like Brad Pitt, except way better looking, grabbing my neck and going. What do you think you're in the moment again i'm they these they were so vivid i'm seeing the blood and the skate and and uh so i'm i'm like i can't uh you know sleep i just won't sleep you know good solution so i sit in a chair instead of

going to bed and I, you know, do the airplane thing kind of nod off, but I wouldn't go into REM sleep. So I was 10, 12 days with that type of no sleep. Jesus. My OCD,

I could hardly leave the house to go to practice. Like you, you, you, you kind of touched on it. So with trauma, yes, you're predisposed which i was to everything when trauma happens that's what happened to me everything will explode and magnify so now that's what's happening to me and um i i remember uh panic attacks, nightmares, the OCD, and not sleeping.

And we had a Super Bowl party at Pat LaFontaine's house, our captain. And I'm a mess. And no one knows. I'm doing this all by myself. Yeah, you're just pushing it down. I'm doing it all by myself. Are you drinking?

No. That's good. But I will. Yeah. Which is will. Yeah. Which is bad. Yeah. So we go there. No one knows.

I freaking slipped out after about 30 minutes. And I went home. I don't know what's going on. I think I'm going crazy, right? And sleep deprivation will really fuck you up. So I go home and I was playing with a broken thumb. We did shit like that back then. In fact, there's a picture of me bleeding out,

and I got a cast on my arm. And you guys aren't, you know, I'm a different era, but you two pricks are pretty tough. Not like that. Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't even know how to go there right now. Really? Maybe biz. Not like that. Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't even know how to go there right now. Really? Maybe biz.

Not like that. Anyway. Anyway, so I get home. I got these painkillers, which I wasn't taking. Do not drink with alcohol. We'll make you drowsy. Fucking A. So I took about five or six and drained a bottle of scotch.

Now I'm drinking. Back to your question. Now I'm drinking taking pills so i wake up in buffalo general no it wasn't about at a hospital in buffalo no shit and my heart had stopped and they had to revive me and everything and they thought possible suicide and i told no that comes later who. Who had called the paramedics? Like if you were just alone in your apartment, did you end up? No, I had a girlfriend. Okay. And she actually revived me. Wow.

Yeah. And so I'm talking to the hospital shrink and he goes, you know, questions. And so I told him everything. And I've never told anybody all this stuff even from a kid you know like i'm and so i get diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder panic attacks uh basically mental illness um no ptsd was brought up because back then that wasn't a set of words and uh so uh i'm like in one way like relieved because i'm not going crazy but the other way you know i'm like oh shit now what and it went public yeah what if the team finds out well the

team did find out of course they had to tell the players and everything and uh so then it was a journey of doctors therapists medications and nothing fucking worked now we're talking years ago thank god we've come a long ways with this nothing worked and um made you want to quit right made you want to you know it was hockey's my love my passion not even hockey just like trying to get better you're like nothing's working like this is yeah i i yeah i went i went through that so they put me on a drug called haldol which is a highly sedative drug for schizophrenia highly sedative and i'm playing in the nhl as a goalie And I'm playing in the NHL as a goalie.

Fuck, I was horrible. Horrible. All right, check. My freaking reflexes are freaking slowed down, which as a goalie, you need that shit, right? Like more than anything. And so I get sent to the minors. And again, I'm devastated, yet don't give a shit because I'm so mentally ill yet

hockey was my life my love so i get to the minors first first game in the minors i let in four goals on six shots and biz you could have fucking scored on me then and i get pulled off the first period and i put a towel over my head and I'm just crying the whole game. I went to our coach after the game, Rick Dudley, great guy, great friend, real top-notch guy. So glad he got a ring finally. And I said, Rick, I'm done. He goes, what?

It's one game. You'll be back in the NHL. Is conditioning stint? And I'm like, no. It's one game. You'll be back in the NHL. It's a conditioning stint. And I'm like, no. I told him everything. And he got me into this world-renowned specialist. And this is maybe how God works. I get sent to the frickin' minors,

and I get the guru of mental illness on OCD. And he got me on some meds that I'd been trying different ones for two and a half years. Boom, six weeks, I was back. In fact, after six weeks and nine weeks, my obsessive compulsive disorder left, and I was like, What city was this in? San Diego. Oh, wow.

And I was like, is this what it feels like to be normal? I said that. Is this what it feels like to be normal? I said that. Is this what it feels like to be normal? Because I had no gauge of what normal was. Because I'd struggled as a kid even. What were the exercises in which was helping you get over this, like from a natural perspective? Obviously, there was dialogue involved, but nothing?

You just felt just a pure relief that you... It was all medication. All medication. So where did that lead from then like are you thinking i can get back to the nhl now i feel normal i want to play hockey again my ocd's gone but my game's not quite no what it was my game my game came back like wow yeah i mean yeah my mental health, everything came back. So Boston came calling. And well, I finished a year in San Diego. Then I went to Vegas in the IHL. Expansion year for them and everything.

And I signed with them, $40,000. And I was freaking on fire. So Boston Bruins said, hey, they offered me a contract. And I was so fresh out of all this that I'd been through. I was doing good in Vegas. I was a pillar of the community. I was on the chairman of the board of the Children's Hospital. I was going through, I think, my 10th divorce.

And, you know, it was, but life was good. And I said, I'm in a good, safe place. Nowhere. Yeah. And I didn't go back. I've been there, done that. I was afraid to go back to that pressure that we talk about. You were content.

Yeah. Was that the first time in your life you ever felt like you were actually content? Yep. How old were you? I was probably 33. Unbelievable. Yeah. Who did you finally reach out to talk to? Who was that first person?

Like there's a, I mean, I know the guy, the medication. Rick Dudley, I'll tell you, for the younger people, research this guy. He's been a GM, assistant GM. I always felt bad. And the guys that are in Rick's circle, it's funny because he built the Chicago Blackhawks before they won the cup.

And then he leaves. Ottawa, when they went to the fight, he and builds and then he just he's he just gets bored he built and and finally with florida he's got a ring but rick is a very uh compassionate guy um another guy i don't want to flip on you guys too much but you guys won't even notice fucking jackasses um uh i met uh tony granato reached out to me and uh he said he he just beat cancer so now he's trying to do documentaries to inspire people that have been through that he said clint i want to do a documentary with you about you know helping, give them hope and everything. I didn't know Tony.

I mean, he scored on me a bunch and I played against him. But so we came down and we spent a week together. I'll tell you one thing. That is, that's a guy you need to get on this show. We did, right? Yeah. We've had him on. Oh, you have?

Exceptional human being. Awesome guy. He's a heart and soul, caring, caring man. And I had a visit with him today he's in town here oh yeah yeah but anyways uh yeah you know it's amazing that um people the perception of us assholes tough mean rugged not they're we're we're kittens yeah we are we are kittens there's a lot of really really really good, good hockey players

that would give their shirt off their back, literally. When the career came to an end and you were done playing, were you ready for that? Yeah, the body. The body. Body shut down.

Yeah, well, the knees were freaking, I mean, aching and back. But I was very lucky because I went right from as a player into assistant coach and assistant GM in Vegas. And then I ended up being head coach here. So I got lucky because a lot of guys, you know, the transition is hard. Like, what do I do now?

Right. Were you worried that the Od may come back once you're done oh yeah i always had the fear yep and and that's what happened i went 15 years just taking this uh pill uh thinking this is all i have to do now i'm into coaching and i'm moving around and i'm thinking as long as i do this i'm gonna feel great the rest of my life. Well, no. Came back? Well, because my body got immune to the medication, and I wasn't keeping in touch with my psychiatrist.

Team doctor, hey, I need this prescription renewed, and they would renew it. And so I just thought I was a goldman yeah, it came back. Yeah. And that's what led up to my diagnosis with PTSD. And I know you want to ask the hard question, which I'll do it for you. So I'm starting to spiral. Richard Zadnik cut his jugular vein, right? Oh, yeah. And I'm, no no that reminded me now i'm i'm goldie coach with columbus so i'm very media accessible oh clayton interviews interviews

interviews and you know and i don't know my meds aren't working i know i'm not feeling as good as i should and then i turn to the to the bottle because there's a huge correlation between mental illness and addiction. And I'll tell you why. Because when you feel anxious, have a couple of beers. Smoke a joint. Yeah.

Feel depressed? It works. And it's like that. But the problem is what two beers would do uh i was drinking you know 25 30 beers a day just to get through a day now mind you you know that's american beer and i'm canadian so it's like horse piss right you know but you you know where i'm going and and then now you got the the two problems and that's when uh uh I'm I'm a mess I'm

I'm just a freaking mess uh I spiraled I'm I'm drinking to kill the pain and are you are you a little out to lunch in Columbus as goalie coach are you realizing you're not doing the job no because doing no not really because I back then I wasn't full-time back then they had consultants so i go for two weeks come back for two weeks and so now i'm getting troubled i got in trouble i got thrown in jail for fighting uh a couple bar brawls you know stuff like that uh so the cops in small town where i live uh they know me but they also know I'm good guy because I've done some stuff for them and their CIT training crisis intervention training. So everybody's on the lookout for me. And, uh, so yeah, I got arrested and then I got thrown in a mental hospital and

locked down and all that stuff. And, um, yeah. So one day one day i i just i was up all night um drinking just killing pain and i mean morning came and i i had you know i'm gonna i'm gonna ranch so i'm shooting shit and targets and just trying to get out of my head and then i took the gun and put it to me and i didn't even know there was a bullet in it you know it was like i don't i don't think i don't think it's loaded what if it is what if not yeah saw yourself mad yeah yeah when did you realize like what happened there who helped you well you know, this is probably why I'm, like, I like fighting because I don't feel pain because the bullet didn't penetrate my brain.

It got stuck in my skull. And I'm conscious. And I'm bleeding profusely. And my wife. How am I alive? I'm like, yeah, shouldn't I pass out first and then die? Or do I die? And then, you know, I'm like, what's, what's wrong here?

And, uh, so they, uh, my wife called 911, the cops, everybody, the guns are out because they don't know it's a gun incident. And I'm like, fuck you guys, you know, fuck off, get off my property. You know, instead of going, you know what I mean? I should be like, oh, my God, I just shot myself and help me. No, I'm telling them to fuck off. I said, I've stitched my chin before because I work on animals. I know how to do stitches.

And I've stitched my chin before. And I thought, Beth, I'll stitch it. I don't need you paramedics. I don't need you. You cops, put your guns away and get off my property. So anyways, they got me in an ambulance. He took me to the local hospital in town and then they care, uh, the helicoptered me to Reno.

And, um, I told my wife, I said, you do not, you tell them. So I'm, I'm total conscious, right? I'm thinking, you tell them it was an accident. I was stepping through a fence and the gun kind of tilted and went off. It was an accident. Don't tell them I fucking shot myself because I will never get an NHL job again. You know, so I'm thinking and, uh, yeah. so I was in, uh, they put me in a coma. Uh, they didn't remove the bullet and, uh. Oh, it's still in there. Uh-huh.

Wow. Yeah. And, um, um, that's, uh, then I went to treatment and that's where my journey of healing began. Um, with the PTSD. They say, you got PTSD. And they were talking way back when this happened, my neck. And I'm like, no, I came back. I was a fucking hero.

I was insulted, right? I said, that's a military thing. You know, I came back. Buffalo loves me. You know, that arrogant athlete. Athlete. Thank you. yeah um i'm tough i'm tough and uh yeah so um two months in in there i'm angry and i'm mean and i'm pissed off i claimed a lot of my shit but i wasn't claiming the ptsd no way and um they gave me a book to read they they were i think they didn't know what the fuck to do with me you're being stubborn but oh i

and i was me i almost threw a guy out the window uh you know i was just angry uh you know a guy would piss me off and i said you because a lot of people come in i didn't know this at the time people are coming off shit and drugs or whatever and they'll be talking and this is part of a PTSD symptom. I'd just go like, will you shut the fuck up already? And he wouldn't and I said, all right. And I fucking opened the window,

we're on the second floor. I said, you shut up or you're out the window. You know, I'm mad. I'm really an angry, angry man. So I'm pretty sick and fucked up too, right? And so... Any feeling sorry for yourself or more just anger? Because I would imagine there'd be a little bit,

I mean, your neck and everything you had as a child. I felt bad for you. It was just anger. It was all anger. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, pure anger. And they give me the book, and I love animals.

And I'm not going to read this book. Oh, there's a chapter on animals and how people process trauma or animals process trauma. And this is going to go back to the athletic and the societal thing of where we're tough. We push through the message that, know don't cry never you know and uh so the cheetah and the gazelle fight flight and freeze okay i never heard of freeze and cheetah chasing gazelle cheetah catches gazelle drags gazelle to the ditch goes and gets the cubs to come eat, thinking the gazelle was dead. But the gazelle wasn't dead. It froze, fooled the cheetah. But how the animal processed trauma. When the

cheetah was gone, the gazelle got up and it just shook every limb one by one. And then the whole body violently processed trauma and took off. So I'm about that i never shook i never cried i never you know did anything really and then my wife is coming to visit me about four days later it's about a four-hour drive to where i was uh um in treatment and she got an offender bender coming some through the mountains on an icy hill and she she was so proud she's like oh my god i i held it together i was you know like really proud cops came i filled out a little report but then her whole demeanor changed this goes back to the our thinking of being tough and she was so disappointed in herself

she was i got in the car and i just started to shake and then i cried and and I'm like, the fucking gazelle, and I'm jumping around, I'm going, and she's like, you're on medication here, are you? She was like, holy fuck, what got into you, and it all clicked, that we need to process trauma, and I didn't, she did, and then I went to work, I said, okay, I got this PTSD thing. Who was the first person or the most important person with the ranch in getting you involved in this and what's happened since and realizing how many other people you could help? Yeah, it seemed to have sparked something in you.

You've got to talk about the ranch and things that you do now, and I'm sure that helps you to release some of the things that maybe you might even still need to. Well, okay, God spared me for things that you do now. And I'm sure that helps you to release, you know, some of the things, but maybe you might even. Well, okay. God spared me for those that are still suffering. I should be dead. You know, I really should. I mean, I OD'd and you know, my heart stopped, cut my fricking neck.

I shot myself three times. I should be dead. So I'm here for a reason and it's to help others. So after my book came out, people were calling, the players, ex-players, wives of ex-players, and media. You know, just, and I started to public speak, and so I just got out there. And then Mark Pavlich, you know,

played with Barry Beck and with the Rangers back then. They became pretty close. And then Mark had a similar story, some mental stuff going on. He got in some trouble. He beat up a neighbor. And I don't know that he beat up a neighbor, but he beat up a lot of people at one time in town.

So I do understand the anger. The anger where we're just freaking crazy. And he got in trouble. He was facing possible prison time. And they put him in a mental institute, a lockdown, secure one. And I've been there too. And Barry reached out.

He was trying to rally some players. And somehow he got ahold of me and I didn't know Barry. So I started to talk to Mark and Mark's sister. And I really related to Mark because these mental hospitals, Mark and I have issues, had issues, whatever. But some of these people are very like, it's like the movies, you know, they're schizophrenic, they're running around naked and stuff. That, that was not me. And that was not Mark. And he hated it there. So I went to work trying to get him out. Um, he had a lawyer and I was talking to his lawyer

and said, we got to, you know, uh, I had to talk to the DA and all this. So anyway, it's kind of cool because I had this country singer kind of camping at my place because he has bipolar. And every time he gets fucked up, he comes and shows up at my place and chills out, and he's fine. And I'm walking out of the bar, and I was on at my place and chills out and he's fine. And I came, I'm walking out of the bar and I was on the phone and he said, what's wrong? I said, well, I got this guy. And I kind of told him the story. He says, call her. I said, who's her? So I called her. Um, and she had this place. It was a veteran's facility in Minnesota. Um,

It was a veteran's facility in Minnesota. And I said, I got this guy. You know, you told her. She said, I'll pick him up. Let's get to work on it. Let's get him released. So anyways, talking to the lawyers, we got Mark released and into our, not our facility, them, her facility. And her facility is called the Eagle's Healing Nest.

And veterans with PTSD and disabilities and 70, 70 veterans. Some would be homeless if it wasn't for this place. So they had an empty building that needed big renovations. So that's how we went. What about this building? We could do this for athletes, former athletes, hockey players, you know, current hockey player, whatever. And so it kind of evolved and we, we formed a board and our board, I tell you what, and we're all volunteers. We have one paid employee and he's the director that is there.

And we've all, and we're all private. We, we raise funds privately, you know, donations, donations. And so far we've had, so we've renovated the building. We've had a lot of hockey. Most of our guys, and I obviously can't say names, we've had, well, they're former NHLers, ECHL, NCAA, you know, it doesn't matter. You don't have to be an NHL or former NHL player. It's hockey. All right. Athlete team. We'll take a baseball guy.

You know, we take veterans. Some of our beds have veterans in it because they get over. What's the name of your place that you- It's called the Ranch Teammates for Life. And you kind of developed that concept from that Eagle's Nest? Well, Barry, when Mark, obviously he died by suicide. And he told Barry, I want you to somehow help people and carry this on. And that inspired Barry to call people and get people like me involved. And so Mark, I think, was the idea of the ranch the word ranch i think and um it's called the ranch teammates for life and uh it was all inspired by mark

and and barry beck and i i really think gene mark's sister she she was the one that really drove and and started to you know get people keep let's do this let's do this and to gain honor him a little bit yeah and yeah also also to honor him so is it a place where when they go there it's it's tranquil they work with the animals okay this is what's cool i've been to treatment treatment is it's good i'm not knocking treatment but i don't think it's right when they take your fucking cell phone away and you want to call your kids something just doesn't seem right about that and maybe they got good good reason i don't know't know. But to me, that drove me freaking nuts, just to be disconnected from friends and family,

and you're stuck in there all by yourself. I'm sure there's a reason, but we don't do that. We're on 124 acres. It's beautiful. You get your own room. Very, very small, but at least when I was in treatment, man, I was sitting with six guys in one room. You know, it's a privacy.

It is. You're right. It's tranquil. It is. It's green. I mean, it's beautiful. You know, there's freedom. You know, the therapies, but a lot of our healing.

Here's what I will say. you know, the therapies, but a lot of our healing, here's what I will say. I'm the first contact when a family, let's say a hockey player, a hockey wife or husband, my wife needs treatment or whoever might, I'm the one that says, okay, here's the deal. And I ask the questions, what's the deal? What are you going through? Get the information information make sure it's a fit that we can help them and i say you know we've had people that just because it's a commitment like it's scary shit it is fucking scary shit to go to a place and you don't know what to expect that is freaking courageous to do it's just to make the phone call and and i i think i'm good at it saying this is what it is you know if you want treatment you know no cell phone no computer you know semi-prison you know um but we're not like that so my point is that i ask them to come try you can leave anytime you can leave in a day

give it a week maybe just get adjusted now every person i think has stayed a minimum of three months they don't want to leave because they're healing they're healing and at first they're thinking okay i'm gonna go give it a week i'll give it two weeks maybe a month and i i i i could be wrong but i think everybody stayed at least uh at least a minimum of three months is is that um within the therapy part of it is that similar like to the program where you're sharing in front of others or is that all private no there's group therapy there's one-on-one and everything but i think the biggest healing this is my own personal observation and and watching and and i fly up there and i know everybody that know, I know so many of the veterans that are there at the other, the NAST and that,

and I call them, they call me. I think it's a lot of the peer-to-peer. Yeah. That, you know, Witter. Having something in common. Exactly. You got the hockey in common you understand that pressure we talked about whatever all that stuff but you also got this other thing i'm fucked up or i'm drinking

too much or i'm doing drugs you know like you might know how i feel nobody else does right i know exactly do exactly exactly what an incredible thing because like to go through what you went through and then just finally or not finally that's the wrong word but be like all right i'm gonna help others it's an incredible story i guess i'm most curious and it seems like i know the answer but how how are you doing now how do you feel now um are there still tough days oh yeah i've had kind of a dip you know you got to be honest with people. No, I'm not fucking great right now. Yeah.

And all my board members know it. This is hard for me to come to Vegas. I hope maybe that, you know, that being with us might help a little sharing it. I know. No, no, it absolutely helps. But so I had to go off all my meds because I don't, I've kind of, and this is probably going to be the rest of my life. I do great and everything.

So I'm doing the electronic magnetic brain pulsating therapy, and they've had great success with it with all sorts of things like ptsd anxiety depression trauma addiction all these things so but the thing is i kind of had to wean off my meds and so i'm a little bit you know yeah roller coaster yeah a little bit with that but the thing is uh like i don't wake up at that after two hours of sleep, uh, um, in a panic attack. So my anxiety is decreased. I'm going to the Epic brain center in Reno and they've, it's working. And I'm, I, I, I think there, I want, I would like to get them involved with the ranch,

say we need to get this on, on, you know, on their heads, uh, fixing them. So it's a journey. It's a journey. Well, um, we appreciate you for coming down and like sharing all this. This is huge. And, you know, obviously we have, we like to have a lot of laughs on our podcast. These types of conversations are very important for our listeners. And we, we sometimes have them, uh, maybe not to this deep of a level.

Um, we appreciate you for coming by and being so vulnerable. And we'd love to obviously get you on again. Yeah, we'll do the funny stuff. Yeah, we'll have some more fun. I'd love to also get the info of the ranch out to others. So there are people that would want to help. So when this episode does drop, RA and our social team will reinforce everything and push it out through our channels.

But if you do have something to read off of there. No, no. Like you guys said, you'd take care of that. Like the ranch teammates for like, go on our website, um, donate, uh, you know, go on the hockey, the U S hockey hall of fame, go on the, uh, uh, hall of honor or whatever it's called,

you know, honor somebody, you know, but know honor somebody you know but you guys put that you guys told me before the show you guys take care of that stuff um yeah i want to come on again because i heard glenn healy you know on here oh yeah and and you know he uh i've got keenan stories too but you know here's here's a quick hockey story. Uh, you know, Glenn has done a remarkable job, fantastic job for us. And before him was Mark Napier. I played with Mark and he is a fantastic human being. You know why he wore number 65?

Because he was, uh, a foundation 60, uh, for cystic fibrosis. And he knew a kid that couldn't really speak. And he, he,

the kid would say 65 roses so he wore number 65 but we had a kid you guys will like this i'll make it quick um mike hartman um it's the last game of the season and you know how management is if he played that game he would have flipped into a one-way contract rather than a two-way. And he was scratched. Mark, or we found out, and Mark in warm-ups pulled his groin. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah.

Isn't that great? That's great. That's us guys. That's hockey guys. But it was funny. Mark was, we were getting, there was awards that night. It was a fan appreciation, last game of the season. So Mark was getting a trophy, probably for public service you know community service and he had to skate out um you know he kept his gear

on and he comes from the locker room and he's skating out with a limp because he apparently was telling the manager oh i'm hurting and and got his award and this players we all knew he he was he was fake he was faking it but isn't that cool that he did that for a guy to get him a one way rather than a two-way that's boys taking care of the boys and that's exactly what you're doing now so once again we thank you for coming down and uh you're a special human being and and uh a testament to you helping out others well thank you guys you guys rock uh i i'd love to come on on. I got a list of funny stories. We'll get you on again.

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Thank you so much to Clint Malarchuk. Had a blast talking to him and learning his story. So hopefully you all enjoyed that. We got some other news. Braden Schneider re-signed with the New York Rangers. He's got a $2.2 million cap hit. I believe it's for two years. I think I have that right.

But I like that kid's game. Righty defenseman. He's physical. He can skate. I think he kind of continues to move up the lineup maybe as Truba moves down. Schneider moves up. So good signing there. Biz.

Alex Marulo is forever done with the NHL. I believe that he signed over and Bill Daly mentioned all the paperwork's done that he no longer will ever have the Coyotes back in Scottsdale. I didn't know your feelings on that. Yeah, so I think we touched on it. I was a little bit more fired up when it originally happened, when the sale ended up going down. I was

happy for Ryan Smith in Utah and the fact that these players were going to go to an ownership group that really cared and put resources and, um, and you know, the way that you should treat a pro team. And I don't think that that family really understood the, the, the pro sports element that there's, there's emotions and, and, and people involved. It was treated too much from a business standpoint. Like these people were like machinery and, and,

you know, eventually it, it, it, it feathered away. Right. And I know that it was a good business deal for him where he ended up making about 450 million,

maybe 400 out the door. I've repeatedly said they were always nice and kind to me. But at the end of the day, it was not the way that you operate a professional sports team and there was a lot of unbelievable people that were working for the coyotes organization who kind of got put through the ringer a little bit so it still sucks that they've lost their team uh i have seen a couple tweets like including jj watt who's extremely interested in trying to bring back a team to the desert and forming some type of

ownership group so i believe in the future that all the big dogs from around the area will find a way um to get together with some billy goat and and bring back the arizona coyotes or phoenix coyotes i don't know what i don't know what name they're going to want to take when they bring it back but uh their hockey belongs in the desert and it's probably for the best that he just takes his money and runs yeah he's more like an owner of like the flint tropics like let's be like if that guy's an owner of a sports team it's a low low low level minor league uh franchise somewhere so um goodbye to him uh biz i don't know if you caught any of the soccer actionable basically the last month or at least three weeks.

The Copa America has been going on, just like US, Canada, and then Argentina ended up winning it, Colombia. But on the European side, the Euro, these tournaments, I think the Euro's every four years. And then two years later, it's the World Cup every four years. So it's always every two years. But England lost in a heartbreaker to Spain.

England had kind of been like miraculously moving on in this tournament with late goals and late heroics. And they ran into Spain, who was the best team in the tournament the entire time. Dude, they had this kid. I think it's Lamin Yamal. I may be saying that incorrectly. Biz, he was dominating the tournament. He's 16 years old. No! He turned 17, I think, yesterday

or the day before the championship of the Euro. And he's not just out there. He's starting creating, scoring, assists. I think we might be watching the next Lionel Messi. It's actually crazy. I kept watching the case.

Dynamic. He's fast. He made it. The English goalie yesterday made some crazy saves on him. I was like, I think we're watching history in the making. Almost like a Connor McDavid coming up. Like a different generational type talent. So incredible to see him.

Spain ends up getting the win. Awesome game. But on the other side, Argentina played Colombia in the final last night at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The game was delayed. Dude, these people, they overrun the security. They were climbing through. I saw a tweet. They were like, Andy Dufresne climbing through the shit to get out of Shawshank prison just to get in the game. I don't know what happened. And people were dogging Hard i'm like no no hard rocks had concerts nfl i think it was on the con kf con whatever the federation like uefa runs the euro and i don't know what runs the the the copa america

but these people weren't prepared biz and these soccer lunatics you know what these people lunatics they're nuts they were climbing in over the rafters they were it was bizarre to see the game was delayed i don't know how many people ended up in the stadium well wasn't it the game before that in the semi-finals where players were up there chucking it was like the the something that there's something at the palace they called it like when they run our test yeah I don't know if that was Uruguay. That might have been Uruguay fighting fans. I mean, soccer, you better come prepared. I mean, Green Street Hooligans, great movie.

If anyone wants to watch a good movie about soccer hooligans, that takes place in England. But I couldn't believe this stadium, an NFL stadium, is being overrun by raging lunatic soccer fans bullrushing over little, like, what are the people called who take ushers? Ushers are just getting bullrushed over just to get a chance to see Messi in Argentina

and Colombia fans. So Messi got hurt. He was bawling, crying. He hurt his ankle. Then they showed his ankle. Well, my understanding is that they were short staffed because they had a lot of security in pennsylvania they must have they must have just been sleeping on the job though they didn't they didn't see the guy in the in the crowd with a

fucking rifle ready to try to take the president's head off what is one of the craziest what is happening one of the saddest saddest things i mean and i go into the the man who lost his life dude he he dove on his wife and daughter i think come on 50 years old yeah dude and his wife is and then you see people this is fake trump state it's like the guy just lost his life going to a rally for for a past and possibly future president that was was wild. And I've seen some tweets. I think Trump, I think he moved his head like a fifth of an inch. And it caught him in the ear.

And then he stands up. And I don't care how you lean politically. If you don't think Donald Trump with blood coming down his cheek, with his fist in the air, with the American flag behind him is not one of the most incredible pictures i've ever seen i think portnoy tweeted elections over he wins like the guy got up the guy stood up and then he's like where are my shoes let me get my shoes and

he's telling people to fight but more than anything when i said sad like hate hate a politician hate whoever you want but when it turns into political violence and assassination attempts, that's third world country shit. That is fucking disgusting. And it's like, obviously, people are just so, they hate Trump so much. And there's been rhetoric on both sides of not peaceful things, right? You hear Trump's the enemy. There's just so much shit. And I'm not trying to get political, but I don't care.

I will sit there and say that the former president with blood gushing down his face, screaming fight, fight to his supporters who have just seen bullets flying around. And yeah, the Secret Service, I assume there's going to probably be some heads that roll considering he was... You think they're going to have a team meeting? Team closed door meeting? There was probably a... The Chicklets had a team meeting postseason.

I think the Secret Service might need to be like, hey, there was a sniper 130 yards away in a wide open field. Thank God for the snipers who got him because that could have been a Las Vegas type shooting incident. Who knows if that guy stops. If he hates Trump, he hates all the people who support him. A very sad day in American history, I would say.

But, yeah. I don't know where to go. No, I mean, well said. I was unaware that somebody was shot in behind him. I think it must have been the bullet that went through his ear that killed the guy. He was a firefighter. That's just awful.

It's just tragic. Let's hope Trump comes out and says the Republican convention is going on in Milwaukee, and you kind of hope he comes out and just calls for a little more unity and peace and no matter how much you can't stand somebody politically like the whole violence thing is very scary i would say so oh it's awful weird end to the show but that was one of the craziest things i mean the other day i mean i don't think we could have just glanced over it or not talked about it i mean a president almost got assassinated yesterday it would have been the, the second time in the history of the United States?

Lincoln and Kennedy. I don't know if there's a third. Lincoln was assassinated? In a movie theater. John Wilkes Booth. I mean, that shows you what I know about American politics and history. My apologies.

You're a pro wake surfer, so it's like you're so busy. But folks, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy the interviews. I hope you guys had an awesome week, and we'll have a great week right now. Middle of July. Enjoy your summer if you can, and we appreciate you listening as always. We love you, Chicklets fans. Chicklets TV coming out Thursday, 6 p.m. Eastern time.

Tune in, baby. Top final. Peace. You can get liquor cheap, but how much is your love? They say a drunken speech is just so good that I like to poke a bear, I like to stir the pot. I like to poke a bear, I like to stir the pot. But then you come on in and take it up a notch.

You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot. She hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot. I said she needs a detox to cleanse her mind. Another week rolls in, we're on the road again. Thought I was safe and sound in my minivan. But I said something that crossed the line when I know she felt it so I said she could have a free one on the chin

she went below the bell she had me with a cheap shot she had me with a cheap shot We'll see you next time.